News: 8th February 2013

Business Secretary Vince Cable has written to the Bank of England (BoE) to investigate why small businesses are not feeling the full benefit of the Funding for Lending Scheme.

In a speech made at Bloomberg earlier this week, the minister said that he is disappointed at the level of lending that has taken place so far under a scheme designed to boost enterprise expansion.

Dr Cable also revealed that he has written to the nation's banks asking them to provide further information on how much has been lent, the Telegraph reports.

"The government has a variety of ways of [boosting lending], including the Funding for Lending Scheme, which has had a small impact on mortgages but not on small business lending," he is quoted by the news provider as saying.

"We have to have more cooperation and more diversity [to boost lending]."

Last week, the BoE revealed that there had been a further fall in business lending in December.

Posted by Emily Smith