The latest FSB quarterly survey also reveals that while over 50% of firms questioned have plans to grow during the coming 12 months, one in five see access to finance as the main barrier to achieving their aims.
The FSB warns that the latest credit squeeze will impair small businesses’ growth plans, reduce new job creation and further set back the UK’s struggle to emerge from recession.
In particular, the Federation wants to see the Government’s new “funding for lending” strategy adopt a clear reporting process that provides “tangible evidence” of money going to small firms rather than being used to shore up the banks.
Meanwhile, in the last quarter, confidence among Britain’s small businesses and entrepreneurs fell across all industry sectors excepting health and motor services, with the largest drops in the property market and the financial services industries.
FSB national chairman, John Walker, comments: “This ongoing credit squeeze is becoming critical. Government is relying on small business growth to drag the UK out of recession.”
He adds: “The will of small businesses to grow is there but the money to enable them to do so is not.”
Source:
bankingtimes.co.uk
