Changes to the Small Firms Loan Agreement (SFLA) will mean that budding entrepreneurs will get more financial assistance when starting their own business.

Recommended targets, published by the co-chairman of the Better Regulations task force, Teresa Graham, are aimed at modernising support for small firms and reducing red tape bureaucracy.

The SFLG was introduced to help individuals overcome the problems obtaining the finance to start up new small businesses and also help small businesses to expand.

Such recommendations counter predictions that Teresa Graham was to scrap the scheme altogether and will please small businesses struggling during their early days of conception.

Opinions and views were gauged from many of the UK’s small business centres, culminating in a comprehensive list of recommendations.

They include,

  • Expanding lending limits so that all SME’s can access up to £250,000 as opposed to present stipulations making small businesses under two years old eligible to only £100,000.
  • Introducing a maximum business age limit of three years to apply for assistance.
  • Reducing bureaucracy by making changes to the operation of SFLG
  • Encouraging new lenders to join the scheme
  • Increasing SFLG penetration with wider geographic availability

Graham said, “After almost 30 years advising small firms seeking finance, I know how hard, and sometimes how easy, it can be to access funding.

“My report sets out the recommendations that I believe will enable SFLG to become a modern intervention characterised by strategic and targeted usage, a high level of understanding about its performance, and which is monitored through light touch regulation and focused on the achievement f broad policy goals.

It is hoped that the recommendations will trigger a new wave of measures designed to support small business growth throughout the UK.

In support of the recommendations Chancellor Gordon Brown said, “The review marks another milestone for this extremely popular DTI support scheme, which has guaranteed over £3.8 billion worth of lending to around 88,000 businesses over the last 22 years.

“Our ambition as a Government is to take action to ensure that talented entrepreneurs can get the finance they need to convert their ideas and creativity into thriving businesses”.