Tag Archives: SMEs
Adoption of Digital Financial Tools
| Sector: | Data & technology. | |
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| Client: | Starling Bank | |
| Published: | 5 February, 2026 |
To understand the economic opportunity adoption of digital financial tools present to UK SMEs, London Economics undertook economic modelling using the survey data gathered from SMEs. The model uses survey evidence on time savings, staff involvement and adoption levels and links the time saved on routine financial tasks to higher economic output at firm and […]
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Understanding the Economic Impact of Late Payments – July 2025
| Sector: | Entrepreneurship & SMEs. | |
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| Client: | Department for Business and Trade and the Office of the Small Business Commissioner | |
| Published: | 31 July, 2025 |
Late payment has long been recognized as a significant problem for businesses. However, until now there has been a lack of methodologically robust evidence on the nature and magnitude of this problem. A recent study delivered by London Economics for the Department for Business and Trade and the Office of the Small Business Commissioner bridges […]
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Supporting Businesses During Times of Crisis: Evaluation of the Covid-19 Loan Guarantee Schemes – May 2025
| Sector: | Public Policy. | |
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| Client: | British Business Bank | |
| Published: | 12 May, 2025 |
In response to the enormous challenge faced by businesses as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government rapidly deployed around £80 billion of finance to businesses through three loan guarantee schemes (BBLS, CBILS and CLBILS). In 2021 London Economics were commissioned to lead a large interdisciplinary team conducting a mutli-year evaluation of the schemes. […]
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Access to Cash: Costs to Consumers and SMEs of a Loss of Access to In-person Cash and Banking Services
| Sector: | Consumer markets and protection. | |
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| Client: | Financial Conduct Authority | |
| Published: | 6 February, 2024 |
London Economics led this study for the FCA to estimate the costs to consumers and SMEs from loss of access to cash and in-person banking services. The research explored how consumers and SMEs currently use these services and how they would behave if they lost access to these services. It identified that access to these […]
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How Can Governments Best Support Businesses During Times of Crisis? An Evaluation of the Covid-19 Loan Guarantee Schemes, Led by London Economics, Addresses This Question
| Sector: | Public Policy. | |
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| Client: | British Business Bank | |
| Published: | 28 November, 2023 |
In March 2020, in response to the massive disruption caused to businesses by the Covid-19 pandemic, the government rapidly deployed £78bn of finance to business through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS). The second of three phases of the […]
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Energy Prices and Inflation – Businesses’ Perspective
| Sector: | Regulatory economics. | |
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| Client: | N/A | |
| Published: | 14 February, 2023 |
Jack Booth at London Economics explores businesses’ perspectives on energy prices and inflation in 2022 and early 2023. Key findings for the February 2022-February 2023 period[1] Micro SMEs were least concerned about both energy prices and inflation. Small SMEs were most concerned about energy prices. Medium-sized SMEs and large enterprises were (roughly) equally concerned about […]
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SMEs in the COVID-19 Recovery: Which SMEs Faced Most Pressing Challenges?
| Sector: | Finance. | |
|---|---|---|
| Client: | Internal document | |
| Published: | 7 December, 2022 |
SME & Entrepreneurship Working Paper No. 1 Technical Annex Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and into 2021, SMEs have experienced challenging economic circumstances due to lockdowns and social distancing measures, supply chain constraints, and a tight labour market. This paper investigates the relative importance of various problems that SMEs have faced in the […]
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Evaluation of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme – June 2022
| Sector: | Finance. | |
|---|---|---|
| Client: | British Business Bank | |
| Published: | 14 June, 2022 |
In March 2020, in response to the global pandemic and corresponding wide-ranging business impacts and uncertainty, the government rapidly designed and deployed a series of three loan-guarantee schemes – the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS). These aimed to support smaller […]
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2021/2022 Annual Report on European SMEs – June 2022
| Sector: | Entrepreneurship & SMEs. | |
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| Client: | EC DG EASME / EC DG GROWTH | |
| Published: | June, 2022 |
Report prepared by LE Europe, London Economics’ subsidiary, was published by the European Commission. This report reviews how EU-27 SMEs fared in 2020 and 2021, and how they are likely to perform in 2022. In addition, after an extensive discussion of the state of digitalisation of SMEs in last year’s SME Annual Report, this year […]
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Evaluation of the Research and Development Tax Relief for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises – November 2020
| Sector: | Finance. | |
|---|---|---|
| Client: | HM Revenue & Customs | |
| Published: | 17 November, 2020 |
The independent evaluation of the SME R&D tax relief scheme addressed the requirements of the evaluation plan set out in the European Commission (EC)’s decision letter and the common methodology designed by the EC for State Aid evaluations. More specifically, the evaluation had three main objectives: Assessing the direct impacts of the scheme, measured by […]