What plans he has to increase employment opportunities in small businesses. [55059]

The creation of new employment in small businesses is dependent primarily on a climate of stable, sustained economic growth. The Government have taken decisive action to establish a new framework for monetary policy to ensure economic stability.

The Government are also committed to helping businesses to overcome financial, regulatory and other barriers to growth.

My hon. Friend will be aware that many small businesses in Nottingham have sensibly taken advantage of the Government's new deal to ensure that they have a well-trained and highly motivated work force. Has she made an assessment of the importance of the new deal in creating employment opportunities?

My hon. Friend makes a good point about the opportunities offered by the new deal for people gaining employment and for small and medium enterprises. More than three quarters of the 25,000 employers who have signed up to the new deal are small companies, which means that they are often, valuably, filling gaps and creating necessary skilled jobs. That is why the new deal has been so warmly welcomed by small businesses.

My question seriously follows up earlier questions and is relevant to this matter. Does the Minister agree that the best way for the Government to encourage additional employment by small businesses would be to change the guidelines and criteria of the Monetary Policy Committee so as to enable it, under the Governor of the Bank of England, Eddie George, to reduce interest rates to make them competitive for companies in this country? I am following up the request made, in person, of the Government and the Secretary of State by the hon. Member for Ochil (Mr. O'Neill), who chairs the Select Committee on Trade and Industry. Is it not important for us to consider interest rates, because they are so fundamental to investment by small businesses which would increase employment?

I know that the hon. Gentleman has an impressive record of support for manufacturing industry and interest in small businesses. I know from my extensive discussions with small businesses and my visits to them that the most important factor for them is economic stability. Nothing was more damaging than the record of the previous Government, which saw us going from boom to bust and back again. We need a period of stability, which is exactly what the Government are providing.

Will my hon. Friend remind the Opposition that, if we want to know about long-term competitive conditions for small businesses, we must consider long-term interest rates? For many years under the previous Administration, we suffered from penal long-term interest rates. Since Labour came to power, we have started to reduce those rates, which is good for large, medium and small businesses.

My hon. Friend is right, and he speaks with many years' knowledge of this matter. It is essential that all businesses, but particularly small and medium businesses, know what conditions will be, not only for the next few weeks but for the next few months. We are providing that stability and certainty.

Does the Minister recall her colleague, the Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities, saying, when in Opposition, that, if Britain dragged behind its Community partners on economic and monetary union it would be a serious blow …would make Britain a far less attractive place to invest in and would jeopardise even more jobs"?—[Official Report, 24 March 1993; Vol. 221, c. 964.] Does she agree with him?

The hon. Gentleman knows precisely what the Government have said about economic and monetary union. The key thing that we must do at the moment is to prepare all our businesses—small, medium or large—for the fact that there will be 300 million consumers in the euro zone. The key thing that the Government must make up for is the deficiency of the previous Government, who wasted precious time squabbling among themselves instead of acting for the country, and thereby let those small businesses down. That is why we are doing so much work on preparing our businesses, so that they can take true competitive advantage of the euro zone when it comes into being on 1 January.