We help to make local growth policy more cost-effective.

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Business investment is a key driver of productivity and local economic growth. Unless a business can self-fund investment, it will need access to external finance, normally debt finance. Businesses can struggle to access debt finance for a number of reasons including information asymmetries, being assessed as higher risk or a lack of collateral. Depending on the nature of the constraints and the returns to investment, this may mean business investment is below the socially optimal level.

This briefing provides a framework to help policymakers think through some of the local economic impacts of improving business access to debt finance including through community finance institutions.