STEVE Park, managing director of Warrington & Co, talks Centre for Cities in his latest column.

“‘Once again Warrington is top of the economic tables.

Last week’s publication of the annual Small Business Outlook report by independent think tank Centre for Cities ranked Warrington as number one in the UK for high growth SMEs and also as having the third highest SME average job gain per business.

“Warrington was also ranked tenth in the list of UK’s top ten cities ‘where SME’s are pursuing high-growth strategies that are fuelling the nation’s economic recovery’.

“These growth stats are all the more remarkable when viewed against the access to finance barriers that are still very much evident.

“Anecdotally I hear this a lot and it too is backed up by a wealth of evidence.

“It is often not so much that the banks are not willing to lend, but that the conditions attached make it prohibitive to small business.

“Most recently asset finance company, Close Brothers reported that that while 53 per cent of SMEs planned to seek growth funding in the next 12 months, two in three of that number were also worried that their bank would turn them down.

“One in five of those businesses surveyed had been declined access to bank funding in the last six months.

“Lending needs to relax to encourage growth albeit with a degree of prudence to allow the economy to move from green shoots into blossom.

“Interesting too to hear of another Close Brothers report that found that half of all north west SMEs believed that the government’s greatest priority should be in infrastructure.

“Two thirds believed that upgrading infrastructure is what the UK needs in order to prosper.

“This is why the infrastructure plans in Warrington are so important such as improvements to Junction 8 of the M62 and improving congestion at pinch-points in Birchwood. I hope to have more news on both of these later this year.”