Partner Article

Time to Create A Small Business Bank

One of the biggest issues that our members in the North East regularly complain about is the lack of lending from the banks.

To help stem this we have seen a raft of announcements from the Government to try and stimulate lending through various schemes like the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, Project Merlin, the National Loan Guarantee Scheme and Funding for Lending.

Small businesses across the North East will lead the recovery of the economy and need to be supported in their growth ambitions.

The Chancellor has announced that he is looking seriously at creating a small business bank, sponsored by the Government, to help back small business loans.

Similar models already work with great success in Germany, and in the US through its Small Business Administration. We have long called for something similar in the UK_._

The devil is always in the detail of announcements from Government but we will continue to press the need for banks to increase their lending to small and micro businesses across the region.

With a third of businesses missing their growth opportunities as a result of not getting the credit they need, we believe this new bank will help firms grow and invest and get the recovery back on track.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Hanson .