Access to external finance as major obstacle to SME by sector 2014-2019 survey

This statistic displays the share of small and medium enterprises (SME) expecting access to external finance to be a major obstacle to running the business in the next 12 months in the United Kingdom (UK) as of 2nd quarter 2014 to 2019, by sector. In 2014, it was found that the manufacturing sector had the highest proportion of SMEs with this expectation at 12 percent, by 2019 this share had decreased to 5 percent.

Share of small and medium enterprises (SME) expecting access to external finance to be a major obstacle to running the business in the next 12 months in the United Kingdom (UK) as of 2nd quarter 2014 to 2nd quarter 2019, by sector*

Characteristic	Q2 2014	Q2 2015	Q2 2016	Q2 2017	Q2 2018	Q2 2019
Health and Social work	4%	2%	7%	5%	7%	13%
Construction	7%	3%	5%	3%	5%	12%
Transport, Storage and Communication	10%	5%	8%	5%	4%	9%
Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry; Fishing	5%	5%	4%	3%	5%	8%
Other Community, Social and Personal Service Activities	12%	6%	4%	3%	6%	7%
Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repairs	10%	6%	7%	6%	5%	6%
Manufacturing	12%	4%	5%	4%	10%	5%
Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities	8%	5%	3%	3%	5%	4%
Hotels and Restaurants	10%	6%	6%	8%	5%	4%

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Release date

September 2019

More information

Region

United Kingdom

Survey time period

2nd quarter 2014 to 2nd quarter 2019

Number of respondents

4,500 respondents

Special properties

SME

Method of interview

Face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews

Supplementary notes

* Respondents were asked to rate (from 1 to 10) the extent to which they expected access to external finance to be an obstacle to them running the business as they would wish in the next 12 months. The following scale was used:
1-4 = a minor obstacle
5-7 = a moderate obstacle
8-10 = a major obstacle
The share of those who answered with a rating of between 8 and 10 are detailed here.
The respondent was the person in charge of managing the business’s finances. Data was collected via interview.
In order to qualify for interview, SMEs had to meet the following criteria in addition to the quotas by size, sector and region:
Not 50%+ owned by another company
Not run as a social enterprise or as a not for profit organisation
Turnover of less than £25m
Not all percentages sum to 100. This is due to rounding.

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