The amount of lending given to small businesses has dropped by \u00a3400m throughout the second quarter of this year, according to the latest Trends in Lending report from the Bank of England.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The drop, which relates to net lending through the Government\u2019s Funding for Lending (FLS) scheme, represents the second quarterly decrease this year.\u00a0 It adds fuel to the fire in what has been a growing push to better support underfunded SMEs, as a main driving force behind the UK\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n
The FLS scheme was created to bolster SMEs and spur growth, and the Bank\u2019s report also shows that it is failing to benefit large firms, with lending down \u00a33.9bn to corporates in the three months to September 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cNet lending to small businesses is still falling, which is disappointing given their immense importance to the economy,\u201d said Samir Desai, founder of Funding Circle.\u00a0 \u201cTraditional banks are hamstrung by legacy issues, limiting their capacity to lend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the latest Credit Conditions survey has also shown that credit availability for small businesses has dropped, with demand for credit outstripping availability.<\/p>\n
Samir added: \u201cThe unprecedented level of demand we are seeing from creditworthy firms at Funding Circle suggests it\u2019s not demand for finance that is falling, but instead demand for traditional bank loans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many SMEs are now seeking alternative forms of funding, including peer-to-peer business lending, and many have criticised the government\u2019s lack of official support.<\/p>\n
Marcus Grimshaw, chairman of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers, said: \u201cGovernment initiatives \u2013 such as the SME lending referral process \u2013 need to be pushed to the top of the agenda to ensure that UK businesses ripe for growth don\u2019t suffer due to lack of funding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The amount of lending given to small businesses has dropped by \u00a3400m throughout the second quarter of this year, according to the latest Trends in Lending report from the Bank of England.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}