Why banks won't lend to small business

It won't surprise anyone who's tried to squeeze a bit of credit from a bank recently that Project Merlin, which set targets for banks to lend to small businesses, has failed to hits its target by around £1 billion, according to this week's figures from the Federation of Small Businesses.

While banks and politicians will crow about the fact that all lending in the last nine months has surpassed the £142.5bn target with £157.7bn, down where the hard-pressed small business lives, it's a different story.