Bank lending in line with Merlin targets

The Bank of England has just released the latest figures showing just how much Britain's banks are lending to small and medium sized businesses.

Under the so-called Project Merlin agreement RBS, Lloyds, HSBC and Santander have agreed to boost lending to small firms to help boost the economic recovery.

The figures show that overall lending rose in the second quarter to £53bn - up from £47.3bn in the first.

Crucially, lending to small firms rose from £16.8bn to £20.5bn.

But Andrew Cave from the Federation of Small business says "we are still strangling and starving businesses in the UK".