Economic growth up for Lords debate

Debate 

Lord Farmer (Conservative), put forward the debate.  

This was a general debate. During debates, members put their experience to good use to discuss current issues and draw the government's attention to concerns.      

Members speaking  

Members speaking in the debate included: 

• Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho (Crossbench), businesswoman
• Baroness Lea of Lymm (Conservative), former economic advisor for Arbuthnot Banking Group
• Baroness Moyo (Non-affiliated), economist
• Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative), non-executive director of Secure Trust Bank.

Opening the debate, Lord Farmer said:

'Stimulating wealth creation requires encouraging people to take risks and act on out-of-the-box ideas. In this country, the hero is not the risk-taker but the reasonable man.'

Baroness Moyo added:

'We can drive dynamism and success here in the UK by forging, nurturing and creating a culture of risk capital, where, beyond the traditional banking system, entrepreneurs can raise millions in seed capital to do something that has only a low chance of working but where investors bet that the expected value of the investment is still positive.'

Lord Livermore (Labour), Financial Secretary to the Treasury, responded on behalf of the government:

'We inherited three distinct crises: a crisis in the public finances, a crisis in our public services and a crisis in the cost of living.

'In the Budget we introduced tough new fiscal rules to ensure that day-to-day spending is balanced with tax receipts, while getting debt down as a share of GDP.'

Get involved  

Catch up 

Watch on Parliament TV or read the Lords Hansard transcript. 

Explore background information   

• Find out more about the issues the debate covers in the House of Lords Library briefing.
• Learn more about how the House of Lords checks and challenges government. 

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