According to recent reports, where a small business is located can have a big impact on how likely it will receive funding. While some areas offer excellent prospects for funding others are virtually feeding of scraps according to statistics.
Figures from 2016 show that businesses that benefitted from the Bank Referral Scheme totalled only 900 out of the 19,000 that had been referred after failing to secure loans from high street lenders. Looking deeper into the stats just 75 of these companies was located in in the North West.
Looking at more recent figures from UK Finance, things haven’t changed much when it comes to loan approvals by UK region. All regions saw a year on year fall in loan approvals in the final quarter of 2017 apart from Wales which saw a 55% increase compared to 7.6% decline for England.
The statistics show banks still a have a long way to go before they have sufficient trust in lending to small businesses throughout the UK with the exception of Wales.
To get around this problem, businesses should consider alternative forms of business finance to support ambitious growth plans such as asset financing.