Govt's plans to boost small businesses are 'unclear', says expert

Date: 12th October 2011

Small businesses around the UK will need to wait in order to see how the government plans to improve access to credit.

That is according to the Centre Forum, which claimed that the coalition's plans to get money into smaller firms are "unclear".

Speaking to Tom Clark, presenter of the Guardian's business podcast, Forum chief economist Tim Leunig explained that it is waiting to see what chancellor George Osborne's "credit easing" plans entail.

"We don't know for sure. It could be that the government is now going to lend money directly to small firms, but I would be surprised if they were really going to do that to any extent.

"It will be very expensive if they were and there would always be the danger that lots of people would come along to try and scam the government and not pay it back."

Mr Leunig added that Mr Osborne's recent speech in Manchester was rather gloomy, saying "the economy is not where they hoped or expected it would be a year ago".

Posted by Emily Smith