Business Startup: SMEs should 'badger' MPs about loan refusals
May 19 2011
Stephen Lloyd has urged small businesses to inform MPs of bank stubbornness
#bstartup 2011 A politician has said that small businesses should 'badger' their local MPs if they experience reluctance from banks when applying for a loan.
In a presentation in conjunction with the Federation of Small Businesses at the Business Startup 2011 event, Stephen Lloyd, MP for Eastbourne, said that smaller businesses need to 'get on the case' of their MPs about the reactions of banks to funding requests as their feedback will filter through to central government.
Said Lloyd, 'I still get a lot of constituents coming to me saying its a real struggle to get banks to give them business loans and when they do give them the collateral is very high, so I know how hard it is at the minute. Any information you have on inappropriate attitudes of banks please contact your MP because we are feeding this information through to the Treasury and Vince Cable.'
Lloyd went on to say that the government is relying on small businesses to get the country's economy 'out of this mess' and that the Coalition government is being 'as supportive as it can' to the needs of small businesses.
John A Baltay, an observer and managing director of marketing strategy company Fenrix, said that the speech confirmed the government believes that SMEs can fuel the country's growth and that the banks were being portrayed as 'the bad guys'.
'The government needs to work with the banks to enable them to lend more, which in turn will be the catalyst for small businesses to grow,' he said.
Also in the audience for the speech, self-employed property investor Doug Pass is not convinced about the government's sincerity in havng small businesses at its heart, believing more grants should be offered to growing enterprises.
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