Business News

SMEs say they are not getting help in going green

Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 12:22 am

SMEs are working hard to cut down on their emissions, and the Government does not seem to be stepping in to lend any aid.

Due to the fact that the economy is still fragile, most firms have been placed to put green issues on the side regardless of how they feel about them but even though SMEs are unable to focus on green issues, the target goal of the UK for carbon emissions is still in place.

For this reason, the Federation of Small Business feels that if the Government still wants to meet its own carbon emission standards then they need to start offering more incentives to SMEs to help them out.  Of course, while it may seem like a good idea, the Government is busy making cuts which make it seem unlikely that this will happen.

There are measures in place in order to help businesses work towards cutting back their carbon emissions such as an interest free loan provided by the Carbon Trust for the purchase of energy efficient equipment.  However, the FSB says that this is not enough since the Government wants to cut emissions by about 20% before 2020 dawns.

It may not all be in the hands of SMEs, because 44% of small businesses are housed in rental spaces which means that they have no personal investment towards making changes in items such as insulation.  Since landlords will not see any gain, they also have no incentive to invest in such changes.

Small business still can not get finance

Filed under: Loans — Alan @ 5:56 am

Even though £200bn has been added to the UK financial system by the Government, small and medium sized businesses are still have problems finding finance a report by the British Chambers of Commerce stated.

According to the report, about a third of all companies included in the survey said that they had a harder time finding finance access within the last three months. Out of those questioned, 3% said the finance situation had improved while an overwhelming 64% said that it had not changed.

Director of the BCC, David Frost, stated that their survey showed that the largest issue still facing British SMEs is high demand for services and products. He continued to state that it has become clear that despite the government’s attempts to pump money into the financial system the efforts are not aiding SMEs in finding funding.

This is especially true for businesses looking for money to aid expansion or future success.

Frost also called for the government to consider implementing a new set of measures that will help increase the confidence felt towards SMEs by the UK public. He stated that a great place to start would be by scrapping the increase in National Insurance that is planned for 2011.

Despite the concerns over finance, the report showed that the largest problem is actually the lack of customer demand in holding businesses back from expanding instead of trouble finding finance.

The BCC survey questioned 400 firms about their viewpoints on the lending situation that exists currently in the UK.