Aug 24th, 2011 in
Insight |
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For the lucky few with plenty of hard cash to spare it’s a great time to buy a business. The dearth of credit means many vendors are willing to accept lower prices than they would have before the financial crash.
The rest of us – the vast majority – will have to borrow some money, probably, but not necessarily, from a bank.
While banks are keeping a tight rein on the purse strings, the good news is that it’s...
With all the fluff from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills which stated that the “Project Merlin agreement recently struck with the major banks, we have secured £190bn of new credit in 2011, £76bn of which will be new lending capacity for SMEs“, we’ve actually seen small business lending halving, and in the Bank of England’s recent report we can see that “lenders...
We shouldn’t be surprised that Government has launched this programme to promote the use of business mentors, given that the Department for Business Innovation and Skills produced a missive (pdf) which mentioned the subject back in October:
“Through a network of „Growth hubs‟ the Government will deliver tailored specialist advice to improve the „investment readiness‟ of small companies, making...
How often have we told that the secret of economic recovery is to get banks lending to small business again? But wasn’t Project Merlin doomed to failure if the banks weren’t sanctioned if they didn’t meet their lending targets?
Of the £19bn that should have been lent to small and medium-sized companies over the first quarter of the year, only £16.8bn was actually sent their way. The trouble is,...
We’re in a ‘push me, pull you’ economy. Inflation, repossessions, mortgage deals, mortgage arrears, inflation, manufacturing output, employment rates … they don’t all point, conclusively, to either a growing or contracting economy. The unseasonably cold winter and then the exceptionally warm spring have caused problems to retailers. At first people couldn’t travel to the shops and...
