by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Access to finance remains a serious problem for many firms, according to Steve Tancock, a turnaround expert with Smith and Williamson in Maidstone.

The British Chambers of Commerce said on Monday that even though the Bank of England had pumped around £200billion into the economy to boost money supply and stimulate lending, and banks had been urged to boost lending, firms were still struggling to get finance.

David Frost, BCC director-general, said: "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 for future success."

"I would totally agree with that," said Mr Tancock. "It's all very well saying you want to lend the money - but you still have lending criteria and the vast majority of small businesses don’t meet the lending criteria. The banks have pulled their horns in big time and we have not seen a big up-tick in their participation and involvement."

Some banks appeared to be looking for business but were not finding deals they wanted to support. "While a lot of banks are saying they’ve got a lot of turnaround opportunities, they’re not converting into instructions where as on the insolvency side, the instructions continue to come," Mr Tancock added.

Things were still tough. "In the last three months, we have seen a steady, remorseless trend of businesses coming to us. We’re going to be very busy for the next few months."

In its latest BCC Monthly Business Survey compiled from data from local chambers, including several in Kent, a third of companies reported that accessing finance had been more difficult over the last three months.

The number of firms reporting improved access to finance fell from six per cent in June, to just three per cent in the latest survey.

Mr Frost urged Chancellor Alistair Darling to include measures that would encourage companies to invest and improve confidence in December's Pre-Budget Report.