John Longworth, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, laments the lack of funding available to SMEs on the This Is Money personal finance platform. He has a point: “All too often, we see our fastest growing, most dynamic companies – those with the potential to become global champions – reaching a plateau or […]
FSB has just issued a useful and vocal manifesto Small business is finding its voice – and about time, too. Small and medium-sized enterprises account for 47 per cent of the employed workforce, as Money&Co. CEO, Nicola Horlick, explains. As you know, putting people together with businesses to facilitate funding and growth is at the […]
The banks’ convoluted financial mechanism continues to fail SMEs Lending to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) fell in the first quarter of this year, according to figures just released by the Bank of England. Net lending, a measure that counts repaid loans, fell by £2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2014, with SMEs seeing lending […]
BCC criticises a system that’s not getting money to business The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), a business lobby group, this week said the recovery was “moving forward” but warned that “repairing our broken business finance system” was “a top priority”, according to a report from the BBC. “These results reinforce the case against the […]
Banks will do mortgages, but are reluctant to support small business Vince Cable, the UK government’s business secretary, is the latest senior political and business figure to criticise UK bank lending practice. The Guardian reports Cable’s recent remarks to a business audience: “Banks pump out lending in the mortgage market, while lending to small businesses […]
A survey by Business Banking Insight (BBI), a new government-backed website for SMEs to compare bank performances, reveals continuing discontent with banks. The survey of 5,000 businesses found 85 per cent had not approached a bank to apply for credit during the past 12 months. Firms with less than 10 employees gave their banks an […]