High street banks have cut finance for SMEs in the South West by 1.9billion in the last five years, new research reveals.
SME lending dropped from £44.2billion in 2014 to £42.3billion in 2018 - a fall of 4.3 per cent - the report by business lender iwoca found.
Seven out of 15 local authorities in the region had a drop in SME lending of more than 10 per cent, but Torbay was the worst hit during the period with a huge fall of 53.9 per cent.
The Devon borough saw its funding to SMEs drop by a whopping £570million. Plymouth followed with a 20 per cent fall (£223million), while Bath and North East Somerset also saw a reduction of 20 per cent (£248million).
Meanwhile, Bristol saw a fall of five per cent (£141million) but the number of businesses in the city increased by 16.9 per cent, while Swindon saw a funding drop of 8.7 per cent but a rise in businesses of 20 per cent.
However, the South West has not been hit as hard as other UK regions, according to the findings.
The West of England saw the second-small drop after London, which saw lending fall by 3.6 per cent.
The North West, however, saw a 16.7 per cent reduction in funding to SMEs over the period - a fall of £7.1billion.
“SMEs are vital for the health of the economy,” said Christoph Rieche, chief executive and cofounder of iwoca.
“It’s therefore concerning that in many parts of the country, major banks aren’t serving small and microbusinesses with the funding required to help them thrive.”
SME lending changes in the South West
| South West | SME lending % change | Total change in SME lending | % increase of business counts |
| Torbay | -53.9 | -£570,513,605.75 | 9.5 |
| Plymouth | -20.3 | -£223,314,949.34 | 6.1 |
| Bristol, City of | -5.0 | -£141,743,616.67 | 16.9 |
| Cornwall | -9.3 | -£498,424,434.95 | 9.0 |
| Somerset | -7.2 | -£349,250,676.80 | 8.0 |
| Bournemouth | -16.0 | -£173,370,261.28 | 12.1 |
| Poole | -3.2 | -£42,133,862.03 | 12.1 |
| Swindon | -8.7 | -£45,264,163.46 | 20.0 |
| Devon | -8.8 | -£735,176,794.10 | 8.3 |
| Dorset | -11.3 | -£365,189,466.67 | 6.7 |
| Gloucestershire | -7.3 | -£307,006,733.59 | 12.2 |
| North Somerset | -13.4 | -£169,392,517.37 | 11.7 |
| Wiltshire | -1.4 | -£40,126,686.33 | 9.3 |
| South Gloucestershire | -16.4 | -£174,316,073.57 | 13.7 |
| Bath and North East Somerset | -20.3 | -£248,185,339.26 | 10.1 |
