How does the government improve the state of SME finance? Criticism has been growing increasingly loud but a definitive move to help cut red tape could help inject billions into the economy. Could new IP reform help it put state SME lending policy back on track?
Red tape is a familiar foe for small businesses, blocking development, putting essential finance out of reach and strangling progress. As discussed in a previous blog, one of the favourite bugbears of SMEs is a lack of trust in business banking policy. So, what should be made of the latest part of the government’s plan to take a figurative scythe to this barrier?
According to the Business Secretary Vince Cable, the government’s proposed intellectual property reform could benefit the economy by up to £7.9 billion. This is a huge figure, one to make us sit up and take notice. The plan is that a more open intellectual property system will allow innovative businesses to develop new products and services. Here we are back at egging on the entrepreneurs: a core tenet of state business growth planning.

So, will it work or will it get lost amid the baying din that currently surrounds UK economic strategy? Is it enough to provide the spark that businesses are increasingly looking to alternative forms of finance to provide?

With the global stock markets blowing precariously in the wind and UK economy growth rates downgraded, SMEs are in a need of boost. Perhaps away from all the headline acts, an attack on red tape will quietly provide the momentum that is badly needed.