Manufacturers’ Organisation EEF released its third quarter survey on lending yesterday, as it was shown that conditions stayed uncertain and there was precious little sign of an easing in the flow of lending to business.
17% of manufacturers surveyed revealed they were seeing an increase in the price of lending in the third quarter, with 7% still seeing a decrease in the availability of funding lines.
13.3% of businesses lending already saw their fees increase, even with the Bank of England implying recently that the record low bank rate of 0.5% is unlikely to increase in the short term future.
The EEF called for the government to respond decisively in the wake of the Independent Commission on banking report, "A lack of competition in the SME lending market is still keeping costs too high and preventing the flow of finance our growing companies need. The government must respond strongly to the competition-enhancing recommendations in next month’s report on banking from the Vickers’ Commission," Lee Hopley, the EEF’s Chief Economist indicated.
Invoice Finance as a funding option?
Although lending conditions may be slow to improve across the traditional facilities provided by the banks, there are alternative methods of getting finance in for your manufacturing business.
Invoice finance options have the benefit of growing alongside your business, providing you with relevant levels of finance as your business expands.
Here at Skipton Business Finance, we are able to provide higher than ever amounts of funding to our clients through our invoice factoring and invoice discounting facilities.
Why not give us a call today, to see if we can provide you with a funding line suitable to your business.