smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Small businesses are still being denied finance, despite larger companies seeing an improvement in credit availability, says a survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

Some six per cent of SMEs report an improvement in access to existing credit lines, while 18 per cent have seen a deterioration. This creates a balance of -12 per cent – slightly up from May’s figure of -14 per cent.

Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI, says: ‘Smaller and medium sized businesses are still facing challenging credit conditions and have fewer funding options open to them than big companies. We hope that over time their credit supply will improve.’

Large companies are faring better in accessing funds, the CBI survey finds, with the overall balance of respondents seeing an improvement jumping from -20 per cent in May to +18 per cent.

But businesses state that obtaining finance had become more expensive. Of the 73 surveyed, half claim the cost of new credit has risen over the past three months.

According to a recent report by the British Retail Consortium, small business retailers are still being denied finance, with a third saying lending has decreased over the last three months.

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