Like a dry day with a blink of sun after weeks of record-breaking rainfall, the £80 billion Funding for Lending programme, launched yesterday, offers a vital glimmer of hope amid the continuing financial wreckage of the 2007 credit crunch.
The scheme, to be run by the Bank of England, is designed to jump-start the economy by enabling banks and building societies to borrow at low rates. This is a welcome, if overdue, practical step to make it easier for small businesses to borrow funds and for house purchasers, especially first-time buyers, to obtain mortgages.
Please enable cookies in your browser to display the rest of this article.