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PARTY POLITICAL BROADCAST NNP A595B/01 BRD000000 | 0:00:00 | 0:00:00 | |
. | 7:07:45 | 7:07:52 | |
'The cost of living crisis goes deep into people's lives, | 7:08:05 | 7:08:09 | |
'deep into the way our country is run, | 7:08:09 | 7:08:12 | |
'deep into who our country is run for. | 7:08:12 | 7:08:16 | |
'And because the problems are deep, | 7:08:16 | 7:08:18 | |
'the solutions need to be deep as well.' | 7:08:18 | 7:08:21 | |
I opened a pub six years ago in Hackney, | 7:08:21 | 7:08:23 | |
about ten minutes' walk from my house. | 7:08:23 | 7:08:25 | |
One of the things that really struck me was that | 7:08:25 | 7:08:27 | |
most of the beers that we sold weren't London beers. | 7:08:27 | 7:08:30 | |
They were international beers, UK beers, but from further afield. | 7:08:30 | 7:08:33 | |
The seed was sowed - | 7:08:33 | 7:08:34 | |
"Wouldn't it be really great to open our own community brewery | 7:08:34 | 7:08:36 | |
"right here in the heart of London, in Hackney?" | 7:08:36 | 7:08:38 | |
And that was really, I suppose, | 7:08:38 | 7:08:40 | |
the genesis of the idea of The Five Points Brewing Company. | 7:08:40 | 7:08:42 | |
In my speech in the Labour Party Conference, | 7:08:45 | 7:08:47 | |
I talked about the broken energy market, and it was controversial - | 7:08:47 | 7:08:50 | |
the firms didn't like it. | 7:08:50 | 7:08:52 | |
But it was the right thing to do... | 7:08:52 | 7:08:55 | |
APPLAUSE | 7:08:55 | 7:08:56 | |
..and we're going to do the same when it comes to our banking system. | 7:08:56 | 7:08:59 | |
There can be no more important test of whether we're serious | 7:08:59 | 7:09:04 | |
about building the new economy of the future. | 7:09:04 | 7:09:06 | |
I turned it over with friends, family, staff... | 7:09:06 | 7:09:09 | |
I think we just reached that point, "Well, you know, what's to stop us?" | 7:09:09 | 7:09:12 | |
You know, you have to have faith in your own business idea, | 7:09:12 | 7:09:15 | |
you have to have faith that customers will want to buy your product. | 7:09:15 | 7:09:17 | |
We wanted the banks to take a leap of faith along with us. | 7:09:17 | 7:09:21 | |
One of the reasons why Britain relies too much | 7:09:21 | 7:09:23 | |
on low-paying, insecure jobs, | 7:09:23 | 7:09:25 | |
not the high-paying, secure jobs we need, | 7:09:25 | 7:09:28 | |
is that the small and medium-sized firms | 7:09:28 | 7:09:30 | |
that could be creating those jobs | 7:09:30 | 7:09:32 | |
just don't get the finance they need from our banking system. | 7:09:32 | 7:09:35 | |
We had an existing relationship with a bank. | 7:09:35 | 7:09:37 | |
They were happy to open a bank account for us. | 7:09:37 | 7:09:39 | |
My manager at the bank approached their asset finance division. | 7:09:39 | 7:09:41 | |
You know, in Britain, 85% of the small business lending market | 7:09:41 | 7:09:47 | |
is controlled by just four banks. | 7:09:47 | 7:09:50 | |
That is one of the most concentrated patterns of ownership in the world. | 7:09:50 | 7:09:54 | |
We were really confident. | 7:09:54 | 7:09:55 | |
I wasn't simply going to the bank and asking for a blank cheque - there was a credible business plan, | 7:09:55 | 7:10:00 | |
we'd found premises, the clock is ticking down | 7:10:00 | 7:10:02 | |
because as soon as you take a premises you're paying rent, | 7:10:02 | 7:10:04 | |
you're paying business rates, you're paying insurance. | 7:10:04 | 7:10:07 | |
Of course it's an anxious time. | 7:10:07 | 7:10:08 | |
We submitted the business plan and the figures | 7:10:08 | 7:10:11 | |
to our contact at the bank. | 7:10:11 | 7:10:12 | |
You know, we hit send, the documents disappeared off, | 7:10:12 | 7:10:15 | |
and we sat back and waited for an answer. | 7:10:15 | 7:10:17 | |
Of course financial services is an important industry in itself. | 7:10:17 | 7:10:20 | |
But for an industry that's supposed to be a service, | 7:10:20 | 7:10:23 | |
it's been a pretty poor servant, | 7:10:23 | 7:10:26 | |
a pretty poor servant of the real economy. | 7:10:26 | 7:10:29 | |
And let's be honest, it's been a problem for decades. | 7:10:29 | 7:10:32 | |
When the phone call came and they said the finance had not been approved, | 7:10:32 | 7:10:35 | |
the message was very much, "This is a final decision. | 7:10:35 | 7:10:37 | |
"We're not prepared to lend to your business, | 7:10:37 | 7:10:39 | |
"we're not prepared to support this start-up." | 7:10:39 | 7:10:42 | |
We need an end to the culture of the fast buck. | 7:10:43 | 7:10:47 | |
We need a reckoning with our banks, not for retribution, | 7:10:47 | 7:10:51 | |
but for reform, to tackle the cost of living crisis in this country. | 7:10:51 | 7:10:56 | |
APPLAUSE | 7:10:56 | 7:10:58 | |
So, on day one of the next Labour Government, | 7:10:58 | 7:11:02 | |
we will ask the Competition and Markets Authority | 7:11:02 | 7:11:04 | |
to report to us within six months | 7:11:04 | 7:11:07 | |
on how we create at least two new sizeable and competitive banks | 7:11:07 | 7:11:13 | |
to challenge the existing banks on our high street. | 7:11:13 | 7:11:17 | |
But the banks won't like it, | 7:11:17 | 7:11:19 | |
just like the energy companies didn't like it | 7:11:19 | 7:11:21 | |
when we said we wanted to freeze energy prices. | 7:11:21 | 7:11:23 | |
But that's tough, I'm afraid, | 7:11:23 | 7:11:25 | |
because we've got to make the big changes our country needs. | 7:11:25 | 7:11:28 | |
You know, the inability to get bank finance or bank lending | 7:11:28 | 7:11:31 | |
means the difference between starting a new business that employs people | 7:11:31 | 7:11:35 | |
or not starting that business. | 7:11:35 | 7:11:37 | |
I was just fortunate that enough people | 7:11:37 | 7:11:40 | |
that had some money for a rainy day | 7:11:40 | 7:11:42 | |
were willing to come on board and support the new business. | 7:11:42 | 7:11:45 | |
It seems to me that, fundamentally, our system is broken. | 7:11:45 | 7:11:48 | |
It's certainly not working as it should do. | 7:11:48 | 7:11:50 | |
I think we need a generation of banks that are willing | 7:11:50 | 7:11:53 | |
to take that leap of faith with small businesspeople and share | 7:11:53 | 7:11:56 | |
some of that belief, some of that passion, some of that enthusiasm. | 7:11:56 | 7:11:59 | |
We don't want an economy | 7:11:59 | 7:12:01 | |
where we compete on the basis of low-paid, insecure jobs. | 7:12:01 | 7:12:04 | |
That's not the future for Britain. | 7:12:04 | 7:12:06 | |
We want an economy with high-paying, high-skilled jobs. | 7:12:06 | 7:12:09 | |
That's the future we're talking about. | 7:12:09 | 7:12:11 | |
But if we're going to create that future, | 7:12:11 | 7:12:13 | |
we need small and medium-sized firms that can make it happen, | 7:12:13 | 7:12:16 | |
and that's what our banking reforms are about. | 7:12:16 | 7:12:18 | |
And this IS the test - from energy to banking, | 7:12:18 | 7:12:21 | |
are you willing to take on the vested interests? | 7:12:21 | 7:12:24 | |
To make the big changes? | 7:12:24 | 7:12:25 | |
To tackle the cost of living crisis? | 7:12:25 | 7:12:28 | |
To build the new economy? | 7:12:28 | 7:12:29 | |
I am. This Government is not. | 7:12:29 | 7:12:32 | |
That is one of the big differences at the next general election. | 7:12:32 | 7:12:35 | |
APPLAUSE | 7:12:35 | 7:12:37 | |
-Thank you. -APPLAUSE | 7:12:37 | 7:12:40 |