With the constant drip of bad economic data showing how much businesses are suffering from the lack of credit, it's good to get sense of how effetive the range of government schemes have been in improving the access to credit.
And today we've received more detail about how one of those schemes - the Enterprise Finance Guarantee - has fared. Announced in November's Pre-Budget and launched on 14 January, the Enterprise Finance Guarantee is a £1bn loan guarantee scheme delivered provides a 75% government guarantee on individual loans of up to £1m to viable businesses with annual turnover of up to £25m. The guarantee can be used to support new loans, refinance existing loans or to convert part or all of an existing overdraft into a loan to release capacity to meet working capital requirements.
So far, more than £40 million in loans have already been offered and are being processed, with £14 million in loans processed in the past week alone. While the government touts this as £1m in loans a day, only 400 companies have benefited so far.
Although there have been some hiccoughs implementing the Enterprise Finance Guarantee, we should probably be realistic in terms of expectations...both banks and businesses will take time to understand the scheme and to get it - and other schemes - up and running so businesses can benefit.
Any business looking for help or further information should check here.