Hot Features
Premium
Register for Free to get streaming real-time quotes, interactive charts, live options flow, and more.
In the last of ADVFN’s series of articles on what UK businesses want to see in this years budget Anil Stocker, Head of Policy at the NGFC & co-founder of MarketInvoice, an online SME finance provider, makes the case for the government to deliver on further support in helping SMEs gain access to finance.
At the NGFC, we’d like to see the government take some concrete action in the Budget to get money to the small businesses that need cheap, quick and flexible access to finance.
The flagship lending programmes like Funding for Lending and Project Merlin simply haven’t worked. The banks have been either incapable or unwilling to lend to SMEs, despite the government’s best efforts.
The newest version is the Business Bank. Some have suggested that this should be a state-run bank, but it’s clear from RBS, a state-run bank, that this isn’t a viable option. Another way to get money into SMEs’ accounts is needed.
The private sector has produced a raft of new providers, like MarketInvoice, Funding Circle and Crowdcube, each specialised in their own area of finance and funding small businesses directly through the internet. Mr Osborne should embrace the opportunity today to allow this next generation of finance companies to get even more funding straight to the small firms who need it. Last year saw nearly £200 million channelled through alternative finance platforms and that is just the beginning.
In the Budget, Mr Osborne should stop trying to force a square peg into a round hole, giving the banks money that they can’t, or won’t, get to the small companies that need it, and embrace the private sector solution that’s already getting the job done.
The companies that are members of the NGFC are part of the new ecosystem of finance, efficiency driven by real competition and market forces. Only a weak Budget would not acknowledge what they can do for small companies.
Anil Stocker is Head of Policy at the NGFC & co-founder of MarketInvoice.
