Baroness Kramer (LD)

My Lords, this group of amendments concerns itself with financial inclusion. I have two important but very different amendments in this group. The first is Amendment 11, to which the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester has added his name, and I thank him for that. The House will know that I have long been an advocate for CDFIs—community development financial institutions, which are usually banks or credit unions—which are dedicated to serving the banking and finance needs of local communities and small businesses, as our high street banks once did. They do what I suppose in modern terms we would call “place-based lending”; they know the community, its businesses and its people, and they are structured, staffed and skilled to provide those services. By contrast, SMEs struggle to get mainstream bank credit. The Government have taken steps to grow CDFIs, providing £150 million to the British Business Bank to develop a community ENABLE fund, and increasing the growth guarantee scheme by a significant £6.5 billion over four years. They have set up a UK community finance partnership taskforce, with an impressive membership, to build partnerships between CDFIs and mainstream banks. But the key piece of the puzzle is missing; we do not have the driver to create many more CDFIs or community banks, if you prefer that term, and credit unions across the country, especially in our most disadvantaged areas.