THE boss of a town centre business believes the corporate landscape is booming in the north west.

Paul Billingham, from Knight Corportate Finance, says the situation has changed quickly since the economic crash and economic slow down of 2008.

He added: “Economic growth, the Northern Powerhouse and increased competition from challenger banks has led to alternative sources of business finance hitting the north west market.

“We’re finding the marketplace has moved on a lot since 2008 and are often being approached by alternative funding providers, keen to deploy funds in growth businesses.”

“We (Knight) were founded in 2008 just as the UK was entering recession, but we were able to focus on helping business owners achieve their strategic goals along the way by highlighting the options open to them at the time.

"One area where we did struggle however was securing debt funding for smaller businesses as the banks were ‘closed for business’ at this time.

"As the economy has improved, so has the funding options available to businesses.

We have seen renewed appetite from mainstream banks like NatWest, the emergence of challenger banks (such as Oak North and Boost Capital) and other initiatives such as crowd funding to provide a range of funding options; this added competition is proving to be favourable to businesses looking to finance their growth.”

Since 2005, more than £5 billion has been loaned to UK businesses and consumers by the alternative finance sector. 

As the mainstream lending sector begins to recover Paul, from the Palmyra Square based business, believes that local SMEs are in the driving seat.

He added: “With the upcoming changes in dividend rates, and tax efficient investment schemes such as EIS and SIES, there are now more financing options available to SMEs than ever, this really is the right time for business owners to revisit their corporate strategy”.