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Responding to plans announced yesterday by the Business Secretary for a new state investment bank, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'The new state investment bank should provide much needed support for businesses to grow and create jobs. It's a shame that so many businesses have gone to the wall in the two years it's taken the government to agree to the scheme.

'Ministers claim that a £1 billion investment could support £10 billion of business lending. But with the UK trapped in double dip recession, this is nowhere near enough to deal with the scale of our economic crisis.

'If this bank is as good as ministers claim it will be, they should give it the backing it deserves and vastly increase its funds. Multiplying the government's stake tenfold could support £100 billion of additional lending. This is the level of support businesses really need.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- A TUC-funded report by the Institute for Public Policy Research last week called for an ambitious state investment bank with £40 billion of investment over four years. The report is available at http://bit.ly/Ur8J8S

- Details of the new state investment bank are available at http://bit.ly/Vwo22t

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

- On Saturday 20 October thousands of people from across the UK will be heading to London for A Future That Works - a march which starts on the Embankment and ends with a rally in Hyde Park. The day is being organised by the TUC in protest against the government's austerity measures and calls for a new approach which puts growth and an economy that works for ordinary families at the heart of government policy www.afuturethatworks.org

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Alex Rossiter T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07887 572130 E: arossiter@tuc.org.uk