An increase in funds available to small business has been announced by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIB aim to increase the funds available by £4bn over the next four years.
Despite funds already being available for the UK’s small business owners, British banks must first apply to the EIB to access the finance. This has so far proved a problem area, with only Barclays from the ‘big four’ high street banks currently using the EIB finance.
Business groups such as the Federation Of Small Businesses (FSB) have urged the government to insist that more banks apply for access to the funds and for the banks to ‘actively promote’ the EU funding to SME owners.
Figures from the FSB suggest that 80% of the UK’s SMEs use one of the high streets big four banks and yet only Barclays have applied to use the EU funding.
In another FSB poll, it is reported that a third of SMEs have experienced an increase in costs of existing and new finance over the last two months, with an equal number finding new finance hard to come by.
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