Cpcmcredit Blog

It appears to be pretty certain that we will see a Labour administration before the end of the year. Sunak and Hunt have arguably steadied the ship quite competently after the incompetence of Truss and the shabbiness of Johnson but for the public it is, rightly, not enough.

The failures can be debated but its more constructive to imagine what a Labourt administration and specifically Rachel Reeves may well bring.

In the wider scheme of things, she is not a chancellor to be feared by believers in the free market. to her credit (but not Keir’s) she refused to serve under the toxic Corbyn leadership and whilst she can bang on a little excessively about her experience and credentials, there is not doubt she has them. And she’s very smart indeed

Overall economic policy will be steady but we can expect closer ties with the EU. That should be welcomed whilst it should also be appreciated (and will be) that Brexit has been nothing like the disaster many predicted.

A priority here should be a strong push to alleviate the needless bureaucracy that entangles small business exports and imports and my prediction is that with increased good will from the EU as well as a realisation that we are a hugely significantly market for them and that “we are where we are”, this may well be an early win

Reeves has made many promises to encourage small businesses with investment and this should be welcomed. The current administration has been shown to be too “free market” orientated to buy into this and Sunak has too often given the impression of someone who knows his way around money but not actual business and genuine enterprise. He was a banker of course

That was perfectly illustrated by his quite ludicrous Bounceback loans. There was of course room for lending in this arena but fraud was simple and extensive. It is an enduring disgrace that the lack of controls for this lending were naive in the extreme. Nor has there been much effort by HMG to address this and its very welcome that Rachel Reeves has made this a highlight of her agenda and rightly talks passionately about the scale of this shambles.

Coming down to more micro concerns which apply to lenders, there is always a fear that Labour will be regulation hungry and this could apply to business lending. Personally I see little prospect of that in the short or medium term simply because other issues will be of considerable more significance. But I suspect there will rightly be scrutiny of the major banks and their policies and attitudes.

An interesting year ahead