Smaller businesses will be targeted for extra help in a 10-year initiative by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to make the UK “the most enterprising economy in the world”.

The package of measures include a £60 million boost to the small firms loan guarantee scheme, designed to give small companies better access to finance amid the credit crunch.

Two reviews will be launched. One will focus on the barriers small companies face when they are competing for government work. The department wants smaller businesses to be able to win 30 per cent of government procurement and to be able to compete effectively against bigger counterparts. The second review will determine how small business can more easily comply with regulation and employment law.

The department also pledged to look at putting a limit on the cost of new regulation in a certain period which it said would be a world first. Such a move would give small business more certainty over costs.

Background

• Darling's first Budget: the main points

• The Chancellor's speech in full

• Darlings first Budget: the reaction

• Chancellor hits the home budget as his debts soar

• Need to know: Budget 2008

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There will be a drive to increase the numbers of women in small business with a £12.5 million injection into a capital fund investing in women-led businesses.

John Hutton, business and enterprise secretary, said: “We want more new and growing businesses in the UK and more companies and people acting on their enterprising ideas. The UK’s long-term prosperity lies in unlocking the talent of enterprise for people from all sections of society and in our small businesses, helping them to grow.”

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