Is the government's loan scheme enough to assist small businesses?
As Lord Mandelson today announced the government's new guaranteed finance fund there was acute disappointment across the board with some suggesting this was not what had been expected. The government has been routinely leaking details of the scheme in the UK press although somewhere along the line wires seem to have been crossed. What could have been announced in a blaze of glory has ultimately flopped as hopes had been built too high.
The larger £10 billion scheme will only cover businesses which have sales in excess of £500 million year, a figure which takes the vast majority of smaller UK businesses out of the equation. While there is a smaller scheme for smaller businesses the impact of a £1.3 billion one-year guarantee fund will probably be minimal at best. Again the government seems to have come to the aid of larger businesses in the UK leaving many family-based and smaller businesses to waste away.
All in all today's announcement has been something of a letdown for the vast majority of the UK business arena and with business levels set to fall further in 2009 there is real concern for the smaller end of the UK market.
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