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Businesses report struggle to get finance

Published: 17 November 2009
Despite the Bank of England pumping £200bn into the economy, a third of companies reported that access to finance has become harder.
Businesses report struggle to get finance
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) published its latest Monthly Business Survey yesterday, revealing that 33% of companies in the UK found that accessing finance had been more difficult in the past three months.

When the same question was asked in June this year, just 20% of businesses believed access to finance had worsened. In the same month, 6% of firms felt the situation had improved, compared with 3% in the latest survey in November.

However, of the 400 business surveyed, 64% stated that the biggest barrier to their growth over the next year was a lack of consumer demand, while 18% cited lack of credit.

BCC director general David Frost commented: "Our latest survey results show that the biggest issue facing British businesses is still demand for products and services. This means any economic recovery is still fragile."

He added: "It is clear that the huge sums that have been injected into the financial system by quantitative easing are still not reaching small and medium-sized businesses in anything like the scale required for business to invest for future success.

"The Pre-Budget Report on December 9 must include measures that encourage companies to invest and improve confidence. Announcing that 2011's planned increase in National Insurance contributions will be scrapped would be a good start."

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