UK founders are leaving £54bn on the table. Not because the money isn't there. Because nobody is translating it.
That figure comes from new research by Portman Finance Group, published this month, and the number underneath it is the one worth stopping for. Two thirds of UK small businesses say they would borrow more if they understood their options better.
Not that they applied and were turned down. Not that they looked at the cost and decided against it. They could not work out what they were looking at, so they did nothing.
01What the research found
Portman surveyed 2,000 UK SMEs. The headline results:
- 66% would be more likely to borrow if they better understood their options
- 53% say the business finance market is confusing
- 52% do not have complete or high trust in the high-street banks for finance advice
- 21% say a lack of trust in lenders is the main reason they have not borrowed
- 30% have missed a growth opportunity because they could not access finance, at an average self-estimated cost of more than £73,000 each
Scale that £73,000 across the UK SME population and you get the £54bn, which Portman puts at roughly 2% of annual GDP.
02Why this is not an eligibility story
The usual explanation for a funding gap is that businesses cannot get money. That is not what this says.
It says businesses could get money, would like money, and are not asking for it, because the market is written in a language they do not speak. Three products with almost the same name behave completely differently. A flat fee, a factor rate and an APR are three ways of saying a price that cannot be compared to each other without doing arithmetic nobody explains. Eligibility is rarely published anywhere.
And most of what has been written to explain it was written by someone selling one specific product.
That is a translation problem, and unlike an eligibility problem, it is solvable on a Tuesday afternoon.
The part worth being upfront about
Portman is a finance broker. The research concludes that businesses need better guidance from finance brokers. bizbritain is also a broker, so read this paragraph knowing we have the same interest they do.
It does not make the finding wrong. Two thousand owners were asked a question and two thirds gave the same answer, and that answer matches what we hear every week. But the framing was chosen by someone with a stake in it, and you are entitled to know that while you read it.
The £54bn is also an estimate rather than a measurement. It is what owners think missed opportunities cost them, scaled up. Useful for sizing the problem, not a number anyone can point to in a set of accounts.
03What to do about it
If you are somewhere in that 66%, the next step is not an application. It is getting to the point where you could judge one.
We have written the full version of that, including the five myths that stop most first-time applicants and how to compare two costs quoted in different formats: why 66% of UK SMEs still don't apply for finance, and how to fix it in 10 minutes.
The comparison work is exactly what a broker is for. bizbritain is an FCA-authorised finance broker. Tell us the purpose on our funding for growth page and we will map the options.
Figures as published by Portman Finance Group at the time of writing. Applications are subject to status, affordability and lender criteria.
