UK leasing companies will urge politicians to extend tax
incentives to the asset finance industry as part of a lobbying
campaign during the party conference season.
With the Liberal Democrats due to start the
party conference season to start 17 September, the Finance & Leasing Association
(FLA), trade body for asset, consumer and motor finance, and the
Asset Based Finance Association
(ABFA), representing invoice finance companies, are preparing a
joint campaign to raise the profile of their industries.
As UK banks face criticism that they are not
lending enough money to business, and fears grow of a second
recession, politicians, business leaders, and asset finance leaders
will discuss business finance at conference events organised by the
FLA and ABFA.
The events will be chaired by Anthony Hilton,
the financial journalist and London Evening Standard columnist.
Although FLA members contributed funding worth
£19.6 bn to the business sector and public services in 2010,
representing about 25% of all fixed capital investment in the UK,
according to the FLA, the industry’s public profile is fairly
low.
Russell Hamblin-Boone, the FLA’s head of
communications, said: “All of government’s focus has been on
mainstream bank lending. We’re not saying there is anything wrong
with mainstream bank lending but it is not right in all
circumstances.”
The FLA will reiterate its call for government
financial support, such as the
Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme, and tax incentives,
such as capital
allowances, to be extended to asset finance. “We want the
government to treat leasing in the same way as other forms of
finance,” Hamblin-Boone said.
