With the Office of Fair Trading launching a confidential survey to find out how small business owners are being treated by the UK major lenders, the Solutions poll showed that 81% of readers had run up against problems with their bank in the past year, while just 19% said they had not.
Mike Fitzgerald, sales director of the Emba Group, was unsurprised by the findings: “There are so many brokers that are overstretched with expenses that I don’t know how some are surviving. It’s a shame because where else do people get good, honest advice?
“It’s a knee-jerk reaction by lenders from the crisis and they are still shedding jobs. Once that stops and they have re-established a base, they will start to lend. Hopefully, some kind of dialogue with government and the Europe Union might help show the way and encourage help for small businesses.”
This week’s poll question is: Nationwide’s chief economist, Martin Gahbauer, has called the house price falls of the last two months “not an unhealthy development”. Do you think further declines in property prices will boost mortgage activity?
