Chamber and committees

Murray Whittaker, could you comment on post-Covid debt levels and the funding that is available in the SME sector for progressing down the road to net zero?

I think that Jo Chidley indicated that her company is self-funded. Are you in the group that self-funds by using business credit cards, overdrafts and so on to keep your business going and to establish it? Did you benefit from Covid loans? How is your level of debt going to impact on you?

That is an important point, but how would you drive that? Who would drive that approach?

There is quite a disparity between 30 days and 90. Is that universal for—

It sounds like you are providing the big retailers with their working capital.

SMEs come in all shapes and sizes, and I am sure that they have very diverse needs in respect of types of finance, for example. When I look at a pre-Covid snapshot of how SMEs used or sourced finance, I see that business credit cards and charge cards were at the top of the list, followed by overdrafts. That sounds fairly pedestrian. Is there enough knowledge in the SME sector of the diverse funding sources that can be tapped into?

I ask Paul O’Keeffe to comment on the diversity of the supply of financial products and SMEs’ knowledge that those exist and of how to tap into them, which is a slight twist on the question. Is sufficient funding coming through in those diverse lines? Now that we are in the post-Covid period, perhaps Paul O’Keeffe could comment on the debt levels that SMEs are currently bearing.

You say that you pay your suppliers within 30 days as a matter of policy. However, you mentioned that the retailers and so on that you sell to perhaps do not fall into that category. How long, on average, does it take for you to be paid?

As has been said, SMEs come in all sizes, shapes and forms. Accordingly, no one finance option covers them all. We have seen the lack of diversity in how SMEs approach financing. How do we ensure that diversity in financing is made available for the transition to net zero? How do we communicate the existence of such financing to the companies concerned? What can the banking sector do to improve in that regard? I will start with Fraser Sime.

You mentioned that the Government could do something. What, specifically, do you hope the Scottish or UK Government will do to help?