There are more than 300 buildings owned by the Government that are not currently in use. It will be up to the tax-payer to subsidise the cheap leases, available only to smaller firms. A specialist organisation will be set up in order to both manage and to allocate the available space.

David Cameron is encouraging people to start up their own businesses in an attempt to kick-start the ailing economy. This is just the most recent step in the “Business in Everyone” initiative. Possible entrepreneurs are to be encouraged via tutorials, seminars and workshops, in a variety of free services provided by the government to small and medium enterprises.

This “Business in Everyone” campaign is being backed by many organisations as well as the Government, such as the FSB, Startup Britain, CBI and the Social Enterprise Coalition.

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With economic activity already low, these figures from the Lending Report for January, courtesy of the Bank of England, lead to concern that the already tight conditions are going to get worse.Trouble with wholesale markets has been blamed for the increase in costs for business lending. Many of the major lenders in the UK have reported that it is higher costs of funding wholesale banks that have been feeding through to the prices of loans on new business.

This has been the case for the fourth quarter in 2011, and it doesn’t seem likely to change in the near future. Demand for credit is becoming subdued, with the difficulty in obtaining it being cited as the reason.

Banks are lending the minimum that they can to small and medium enterprises. This means that many viable businesses are being crushed because banks are saying no to lending. While banks are not expected to give money to businesses that are not viable, too many are being left without the required capital.

The consequences of this are that businesses are forced to take drastic action, such as either selling shares that they would prefer to keep hold of, or to take short-term loans that come with cripplingly high-interest rates.

Banks are disputing that they have not been lending however. The Commercial Group Director of Lloyds said that his bank was lending, and had in fact increased lending to smaller businesses by 2%, meaning a total of £9.6 billion given out.

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Savings accounts are not glamorous. They are the Steady Eddie of investments, paying a consistent rate of return and offering you instant -or almost instant – access to your funds in exchange. Many accounts offer instant access, which can be good or bad, depending on the type of person you are. If you have a tendency to spend money the minute you get it, or if you tend to take money out of your account if it’s too easily accessible, you might want to opt for an account that makes you jump through some hoops to get at the money. Let’s look at the account types in more detail.

An Easy Access account provides just what it says – easy access. As noted above, this has the advantage of providing cash to you, when needed, with no penalty and often no fees. Some high yield savings accounts have minimum investments of £500 to £1,000 or even more, so knowing how much you have available for the initial deposit will help you narrow the account types. Definitely look for an easy access account with no fees. Fees can eliminate any interest you earn on these accounts, making it much harder to build a higher balance.

Notice savings accounts may pay a slightly higher interest rate, but their main attraction for many people is that you can’t access your funds immediately. You must give notice to the bank a designated period of time before your funds are freed up for withdrawal. That time period may be as short as seven days or as long as 90 days; the longer the notice period, the higher the interest rate, typically.

A ‘regular’ savings account is often used to attract new customers. In return for depositing a set amount of money every month and taking no withdrawals during the introductory time period (typically a year), the bank agrees to pay you a higher rate than on an easy access or notice account.

Lastly, a cash Individual Savings Account or ISA works just like a building society savings account except you don’t pay tax on the interest earned. There are limits to how much you can deposit each year, and fees and charges can vary. Obviously you’ll want to look for the account with the highest interest and lowest fees.

By evaluating the purpose of your savings and your own habits, you’ll be able to identify the most appropriate savings account for your needs.

Article for Discoverbank.com

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The Federation of Small Business have said that the scheme is not doing enough and that most of the companies reapplying for a loan do not represent the majority of small businesses struggling to find a loan.

Russel Griggs is responsible for the external review of the scheme and he has recently commented, “We have been very pleased with the successful initiation of the scheme, especially the response we have had from banks which has been very positive.

When people appeal their case, the loan application is looked at by a higher level in the bank and another decision is made on whether a loan should be offered. Generally, this is because during the appeal more questions are asked and a deeper exploration of why the loan is needed is conducted.”

The initial project was launched late last year and involved several of the major lenders in the UK. It is one of nearly 20 measures that the Department for Business have set out to improve the lending situation for small companies in the country.

The initial green paper which sparked the changes claims that there was a major problem in communication between banks and small businesses as the banks had claimed they were being approached about the loans that the small businesses said they were being offered.

Professor Griggs continued, “There was a lot of reckless lending going on before 2008 and banks were very eager to give out loans. However, in 2008 that all changed and banks become much stricter on their lending, and their confidence disappeared overnight. Small businesses should also understand that the situation has changed for the banks as well so loans aren’t as available as they were before.”

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Speakers at the event include the business secretary Vince Cable and Lord Green. The First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, will also be at the event. The conference is going to be about discussing co-operation between small enterprises in both China and the UK and about the different investment opportunities that exist between the two countries.

It is expected that around 40 representatives from Chinese companies will be at the event, including representatives from the Sany Group. Edwina Hart is the business minister in Wales and she has recently commented, “For a small company in Wales to sign such a big contract with such a big manufacturing giant in China is very impressive and a significant achievement for them.

China is a great source of trading opportunities for companies in Wales and it is great to hear that Tramor is a part of this growing relationship.” The Sany Group is the largest manufacturer in the world of concrete machinery and it employs 70,000 people around the globe.

The president of the Heavy Industry Group, a division of Sany, is Xiang Wenbo, and he has said, “Customers from different regions have different requirements and we are all about providing what our partners need in the area they are from. We have a great focus on localisation and it is a very important part of our business operation.”

The director of Tramor is John Lewis who has said, “This is a very good move for the UK construction industry and we hope that is has a positive economic impact on Wales.” Mr Lewis said they managed to secure the contract by heading to China and asking the company personally whether they wanted to do business.

Mr Lewis added, “We thought that there might be a need for another brand of machinery in the UK and we did a lot of research into different companies. Sany quickly became a very good choice for us as it was capable of supplying the equipment that we needed. The company also has an excellent level of workmanship and attention to detail. The quality of the work is actually something I’ve never seen before in my 30 years in this industry.”

It is expected that the first batch of machinery is going to arrive early next year and there will be an official launch run jointly by both companies around this time. People in Wales are expecting that it will bring a great deal of investment to the country as many people will be seeking the products supplied by Sany through Tramor.

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SME Finance Monitor investigates the amount of financing available to small and medium businesses; it is the most frequent and comprehensive study of its kind in the UK.  This report was based on more than 10,000 telephone interviews with owners of UK businesses that had a turnover of no more than £25 million between February and September of 2011.

The report identifies different segments of the SMEs (small and medium enterprises), breaking them down into groups it refers to as “happy non-seekers” and “would-be seekers”.  The first group included about 3.37 million or 74% of SMEs that reported they did not feel the need to look for new finance in the past year.  In the overall SME market, about a third, or 1.5 million of business owners do not currently use external finance and don’t plan to anytime in the immediate future.

The second group consisted of around 12 percent of the SMEs interviewed, down by only one percent from the previous quarter.  Those were the ones who wanted to borrow money but did not apply for it for one reason or another, with the most common reason being the uncertain economy, and the second being an assumption of refusal by lenders.

In other findings, the report identified about one percent of SMEs that had been unsuccessful when applying for a loan, and two percent when applying for an overdraft.  Of the ones who did apply for overdraft  and were refused, more than half were applying for the first time.  In the case of new loans, about 31% of those applying were unsuccessful, and of that group 41% were first-time applicants.

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A spokesman for the bank has said that they know that there are many SME’s in Scotland that are credit worthy, but they are still facing significant barriers when they try to secure financing. It is crucial now more than ever that these businesses have easy access to the funds they need in order to grow and expand their business.

Rather than using a network of branches, Shawbrook is using brokers to distribute its products, and was formed as an off shoot if the Whiteway Laidlaw Bank in Manchester in affiliation with Link Loans and using Commercial First’s lending platform. The new company is chaired by the former chief of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir George Matthewson.

One of the brokers offering Shawbrooks products in Scotland is Business Financial, and their director Justin Marsh says that the flexible terms they offer filled a real gap in the market.

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Take a look at the world’s largest source of business sustainability data

We want to encourage transparency and accuracy in carbon, energy, water and waste reporting

• Aims to become de facto business scorecard for carbon, energy, waste and water
• Over 4000 case studies on launch reveal cost-cutting potential
• Over 17000 profiles in total and rising
• Targets 9m global profiles to help businesses cut costs

Ecodesk, the data publishing website has put together a profile showing the strategies regarding the use of renewable energy sources from 4000 of the largest companies in the world. It also takes into the consideration the savings they are making cost wise, and that makes this the largest database, that is free for the public to access, of energy, water, business carbon and waste scores in the world.

The 4000 companies included in this study have already saved millions by reporting and then analysing their own data through the Ecodesk site. Amongst the many famous names in this database  are the likes of  Microsoft and DHL. The site, which has now officially launched, has been funded by £1.5m from government and private equity grants, has for the first time made scores of carbon data comparable and free.

In total, there are more than 17,000 profiles available to view,and this new functionality allows all sized companies to set up and then manage a  strategy of sustainability by using free online tools that are already familiar and  simple to use. These are similar to the ones used on Facebook and LinkedIn, so organisations are also able to control their profiles from the site.

The CEO of Ecodesk, Robert Clarke, has said that they want to encourage both accuracy and transparency in the reporting of energy, carbon, waste and water, which will in turn help businesses to save money whilst also stimulating investment in renewable energy and green technology.

He added there are enormous economic and business opportunities available in this sector that as yet haven’t been recognised, and Ecodesk was here to change that once and for all.

Website functionality includes:

• Free creation and management of sustainability profiles for any size of organisation
• Full scale analytics and comparisons, using interactive graphics, or carbon, waste, water, energy data by country and industry sector
• Resources including reports, guides, ebooks, software, training apps and linkback widgets

“The sustainability industry has grown up and moved into hard economics,” added Clarke. “Ecodesk is about helping businesses realise cost savings by providing a platform for measurement guidance and publishing. With a profile and as a result of SEO, it becomes the most public visible record of a company’s sustainability. We support every measurement standard, including BSI, GRI and WRI in our self-edit environment. This is about having a strong business case to use sustainability to cut costs. Good environmental stewardship is a natural product of this firm foundation. Ecodesk is what buyers, investors, researchers, analysts and the public think about your company, so increasingly having a profile will be part of every company’s sustainability programme.”

The site is backed by a team of individual investors, including Gareth Hughes, founder of US Dollars 1.5bn investment fund Climate Change Capital, and tech ‘dragons’ Mark Adorian and Rory Curran.

For more information on individual companies visit www.ecodesk.com

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Since the credit crisis began, there have been several new banks emerging including Metro bank and Aldomore. These are intended to challenge the big lenders in the UK which include RBS, Lloyds, HSBC, and Barclays. The government has recently been urging larger financial institutions to lend to small businesses so they can hire more staff and improve the unemployment situation in the UK. However, these banks are facing criticism because they are still not loaning enough.

Owen Woodley is the Chief Executive of Shawbrook and he has commented about the situation that, “Small and medium-sized enterprises are not being well served in the industry, we are hoping to improve the situation by offering loan opportunities to them that they have been refused at larger institutions.” The new bank is being partially financed by RBS but Mr Woodley has defended this fact saying that it would be an independent bank. He said “the vast majority of the money that we use to stop this bank was independent of RBS.”

Mr Woodley has also said that it intends to make £250 million worth of loans available to small businesses next year. He also said, “There is a definite demand here because companies are approaching larger banks and being turned down, there is no question in my mind that we will find a market for these loans that we are offering. The demand is there.”

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Philip White is the chief executive of Syscap and he has commented, “the government should be encouraged to offer alternative finance options, some non-bank firms have a better position to offer loans than banks. In the market, small businesses do not want to borrow and banks do not want to lend.”

George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has told the Treasury to get money into the economy through credit easing. This is a type of monetary activism which will probably see the government purchasing SME bonds.

Recent data has suggested that borrowing conditions are stabilising for manufacturers in Britain, this data has come from EEF – the manufacturers organisation. Improvements in lending for companies has not come without its costs, borrowing rates are still high and rates on existing borrowing are continuing to increase.

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