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Government urged to make business finance applications less complicated

Written by sgilroy | 10/09/12 14:15


The government has been urged to make it less complicated for small business owners to secure access to funding.

Michael Izza, who is chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), has pointed out that there are currently dozens of different institutions from which business owners have to go to in order to get funding for different exercises.

The Regional Growth Fund, Enterprise Investment Scheme, Business Finance Partnership and National Loan Guarantee Scheme are just a few of the bodies set up to make raising finance easier for businesses.

However, business owners often face the prospect of applying to loads of different schemes in order get funding for a range of business processes.

In a blog for ion.icaew.com, he questioned whether it might be more effective to have one body with which businesses can go to for all their funding.

"It's a bit of an alphabet soup of measures," he said.

According to accountancyage.com, Izza spoke shortly after a survey revealed that a third of UK businesses were unaware of all the tax breaks available to them.

He did, however, applaud the prospect of state-sponsored small business bank being introduced in the UK. Chancellor George Osborne revealed plans for such a bank to be formed last week.