7 April 2008 - Ami Baker gives Alistair Darling a grilling at lunch in Bristol and gets results over SFLG

IMA Managing Director Ami Baker is busily working her way round the cabinet... Having first attended a round-table session at Number 10 with the Prime Minister and John Hutton in January, Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Ami went on to dine with Alistair Darling in Bristol on 14 February 2008 at Bristol's Hotel Du Vin. The lunch, which was organised by SWRDA, was held as a forum for about a dozen entrepreneurs to discuss issues with the Chancellor.

Ami Baker says, "Alistair seemed nervous - and well he should be. While the lunch began pleasantly enough, I was quite keen to raise a couple of points with him, regarding the availability of finance for SME businesses."

With the high street banks now really reluctant to lend under the Small Firms Loan Guarantee (SFLG), the credit crunch, and a simultaneous reduction in capital gains tax relief which has reduced the appetite of business angels for investing, the result has been a significant contraction of the amount of funds availability of finance to small businesses.

"When I challenged Darling on this, the way he spoke suggested he was immovable on either the SFLG issue or the taper tax relief point." further commented Ami.

However, on 1st April 2008, rules governing SFLG were announced. Alistair not only confirmed that there would be a 60% increase in the amount of SFLG funding to be introduced over the next year, but there would also be an extension to the rules whereby companies older than five years could now apply to borrow up to £250,000 via the scheme.

So perhaps he was listening after all.