An increasing number of small and medium-sized businesses say that they are finding it harder to gain critical loans to grow.

They say that the availability of finance has become an even greater obstacle to growth in the past three months, despite the Government’s plan to stimulate bank lending by pumping £200 billion into the econ-omy, according to a new report by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

Thirty-three per cent of businesses said that it had become more difficult to secure credit in the past three months, compared with 20 per cent asked the same question in June. Furthermore, the proportion of companies reporting easier access to finance in the past three months halved to 3 per cent in November, compared with June.

However, a growing proportion of the 400 UK companies surveyed said that weak customer demand was by far the biggest impediment to growth. Sixty-four per cent said that they expected demand to be the biggest barrier to growing their business over the next 12 months, followed by access to finance, at 18 per cent. Regulatory issues were next, at 10 per cent, followed by exchange rates and cost of inputs, both at 4 per cent.

David Frost, director-general of the British Chamber of Commerce, said: “Our latest survey results show that the biggest issue facing British businesses is still demand for products and services. This means that any economic recovery is still fragile.

“It is clear that the huge sums that have been injected into the financial system by quantitative easing are still not reaching small and medium-sized businesses in anything like the scale required for business to invest in future success.”

The Government’s quantitative easing (QE) programme aims to stimulate the economy by creating money and buying assets from the banks, in the hope of prompting them to lend more money. The Bank’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee recently voted to increase the value of the QE scheme by £25 billion, bringing the total to £200 billion.

About 14 per cent of the companies said that they were considering changing banks, citing reasons such as increased charges and changes to terms and conditions.

Mr Frost added that the Pre-Budget Report next month “must include measures that encourage companies to invest and improve confidence ... Announcing that 2011’s planned increase in National Insurance Contributions will be scrapped would be a good start,” he said.

The BCC report came as a separate survey showed that confidence among British businesses had slipped for the second consecutive month in October, suggesting that the road to recovery is set to be long. Thirty-eight per cent of businesses expect their activity to increase next year, while 11 per cent expect a fall. The resulting balance is 27, down from 29 in September and 32 in August. Manufacturers are the most optimistic, with the index of confidence jumping from 21 per cent to 40 per cent in October, but the index for distribution firms, which includes retailers, fell by fived percentage points to 17 per cent.

Companies were slightly more optimistic about the wider economy, with the gauge of economic confidence ticking up to 43, from 42 in September. This was still lower than the reading of 49 in June. A survey from Syscap, the IT finance provider, showed that 90 per cent of businesses believe that the Government needs to step up its efforts to encourage banks to lower the overall cost of lending.

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