Independent retailers have welcomed the Government’s plans to expand access to finance for small businesses, after the Chancellor confirmed a significant scaling up of support through the British Business Bank earlier this week.
The reforms include an expansion of the Growth Guarantee Scheme, which provides a guarantee on commercial loans to small and medium sized businesses, alongside £500m of funding to support innovative firms. The changes are expected to help thousands more small businesses access the finance they need to grow.
Today, the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) - which works with over 6,000 independent retailers across the UK - said the move could help ease long-standing barriers to finance faced by the sector.
Andrew Goodacre, CEO, said: “We welcome the extra funding for this scheme and we really hope it will increase the access to funding for independent retailers. I often hear that lenders consider the sector to be ‘high risk’, and this scheme should go some way to mitigating this risk.”
Goodacre said independent retailers have often found it harder than larger competitors to secure finance from mainstream lenders, and that any measures which improve that access are a welcome step for the high street.
No comments yet