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Small businesses cast adrift by government, says report

Research has indicated that there has been a significant fall in the number of public-sector business funds over the past six months.

UKFunders, which tracks over 1000 business funding sources from both public and private sources, found that the number of active public-sector business funds fell from 275 in August 2010 to 225 in March 2011, a drop of 18%.

Of these, 92% (46) funds were targeted towards start-ups or small businesses.

The news comes just two days after Prime Minister David Cameron declared war on the “enemies of enterprise.”

Stephen Bence, director at UKFunders, commented “This research unveils a worrying trend for businesses across the UK who are already suffering from the effects of low levels of bank lending.

“Particularly hard hit will be start-ups and small businesses who previously had access to a much larger number of Local Government run loan, grant and venture capital funds.

The report indicates that the worst hit have been funds run by local and regional government, where 20% have closed, whilst those run by the Devolved Governments have fared better than average with 13% closing.

He added: “ I can only see the situation getting worse as the regional development agencies wrap up their funds in advance of their own wind down.

“If the government is serious about stimulating the Economy through growth in small businesses, it must ensure that those businesses have adequate access to funding.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .