The Funding for Lending scheme is coming under attack again! Originally designed to increase access to finance and help businesses with their funding problems, it seems to be having the opposite effect, official figures from the Bank of England have just confirmed. On the positive side, the cost of borrowing is falling and their have […]
Business strategy 101: Is this as good as it gets for the UK?
Should someone be calling the top of the UK economy before we all get our fingers burnt again? Is the current stock market rally and increase in consumer confidence a false dawn? Why have we gone from sack cloth and ashes just a few months ago to what is being described in parts of the media […]
Funding for Lending scheme (FLS) Will it ease Funding Problems?
Following on from our recent article on the new Business Bank, this is the fourth in a series explaining the various government funding schemes available to businesses in the UK. Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) What is it? The Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) allows banks and building societies to borrow at cheaper rates from the Bank of […]
Are Google morally obliged to help with our funding problems?
Should we all pay our taxes? It is well known that the UK has suffered over the last 5 years since the global financial crisis and that we continue to experience significant funding problems. There is a big debate at the moment regarding the payment, or non-payment, of UK corporation tax by Google, Amazon, Starbucks […]
The National Loan Guarantee Scheme – a cure for funding problems?
Following on from our recent article on the new Business Bank, this is the third in a series explaining the various government funding schemes available to businesses in the UK. The National Loan Guarantee Scheme (NLGS) What is it? The National Loan Guarantee Scheme (NLGS) was launched on 20 March 2012 and helps businesses access cheaper […]
Why funding problems are likely to get worse as the economy improves!
It is nice to be able to write about better news for the UK economy following a whole range of encouraging data releases. The CBI The CBI’s latest survey data forecasts growth of 0.3pc this quarter, rising to 0.4pc for the next two quarters and between 0.5pc and 0.6pc for each quarter of 2014. They […]
Business Finance Partnership: A guide to alternative funding
Following on from our recent article on the new Business Bank, this is the second in a series explaining the various government funding schemes available to businesses in the UK. Business Finance Partnership (BFP) Background It is a fact that 85% of all business loans are still handled by the “big four” banks as Barclays, […]
Business strategy 101: Complexity theory and Turnaround strategy
Instability not stability! Management has always traditionally focussed on how to control events. The science of Chaos and Complexity concentrates on instability, not stability! This science explores how organisations are formed by the inter-reactions of individual agents and NOT their individual properties. By focussing on the emergent properties, ie the whole system and the properties […]
Can the Enterprise Finance Guarantee help with your funding problems?
Following on from our recent article on the new Business Bank, this is the first in a series explaining the various government funding schemes available to businesses in the UK. The Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) The Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) is a loan guarantee scheme to facilitate lending to viable businesses that have been turned […]
Funding for Lending not working? How it may increase business finance
It seems that the main effect of the Funding for Lending scheme so far is that it has made access to finance in the property market easier to come by! My first reaction to this was why has more not been done to channel much needed finance into the struggling SME market place? Commentators don’t […]