UK SME financing

The University of Cambridge Centre for Business Research has a survey of UK SME financing for 2007.

The survey of businesses with less than 250 employees was carried out in the autumn of 2007, but is unlikely to have captured the full consequences of the credit crunch and slowing economy. It shows that there has been a decline in the use of external finance from 81% of firms in 2004 to 69% in 2007. However, the majority of firms said that there had been no change in the ease of obtaining finance and 71% of those seeking new finance received all that they sought. The report examines these headline figures across firm sizes, regions and industrial sectors. It also includes special chapters on key topics such as female-led businesses, start-up businesses, super growth businesses and those in deprived areas.