News Centre

The recent flooding events in Cumbria and elsewhere have caused a lot of personal hardship. TV screens were filled with images of families and individuals hit hard by damage to property and personal belongings, but many small businesses have felt the impact too.

The incomes of smaller UK businesses have risen steeply since 2010 but the growth rate has slowed this year, a new report shows.

A campaign group is calling for lenders to publish APRs in connection with their business loans. The Campaign for Regulation of Asset Based Finance has written to a number of major banks and is campaigning for APRs to be mandatory. A spokesman said that this would bring much needed clarity to the true price of asset-based finance and help clients compare the costs of different financial products.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has launched a new service aimed at helping small business owners to identify suitable and cost-effective energy tariffs for their businesses.

Many SMEs are facing potentially crippling waits for payments. A new study by Tungsten Network has found that just over one in ten (12%) of small and medium-sized businesses regularly have to wait for 90 days or more under their customers’ payment terms. 3% of SMEs are forced to wait for four months or 120 days.