23/06/2011
In March’s Budget, the coalition government confirmed an agreement with some of the country’s leading banks in an attempt to improve SMEs’ access to finance. The initiative, which has become known as Project Merlin, commits HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Santander to making close to £200 billion worth of credit available to SMEs this year – up 15% on 2010.
06/06/2011
The economy received a welcome boost last month as the Office for National Statistics reported a second successive quarterly fall in UK unemployment during the three months to the end of March.