The government will make its trade credit insurance top-up scheme retrospective, as the eligibility of the scheme will be back-dated to 01 October 2008. What the government hasn't done is increased the amount of money available, but that's likely not a big deal given the £5bn was probably a headline grabbing number anyway.
Talking to manufacturers, credit insurance remains a real issue. By extending its scheme, the government has shown it can listen and respond to business' concerns about the recession.
How will the extended eligibility help?
Most of the credit insurance problems happened between Oct 08 and March 09 - the worst of the recession to date. If a company had their credit insurance reduced during that time, the extended eligibility should help companies access lines of credit, assuage concerns about supply chians and provide some confidence in getting new orders.
But as we've said before, credit insurance is a secondary problem...it will go away only when demand returns.