Ron Emerson can see green shoots for small company lending emerging from the turmoil caused by the coronavirus outbreak, not least in the way it has proved the value of the British Business BankWhile serving as founding chairman of the state-owned British Business Bank, Ron Emerson got used to hearing sniffy comments about the notion of the UK having an economic development agency. “People said it wasn’t necessary and that it won’t work.” Then came the Covid-19 pandemic and a reappraisal of the agency — indeed, of the idea of state intervention more generally. “It did work and I think the government’s very grateful that it’s there.”Since the emergence of the virus, the British Business Bank has administered schemes that have provided tens of billions of pounds of emergency bank loans to companies, thrusting what had been a relatively obscure organisation into the spotlight. Mr Emerson, 73, its chairman from 2013 to 2016, expects it to

Source: The Times August 02, 2020 23:07 UTC