Small companies are ignoring the government's Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme (EFG) with 93% of SMEs not seeing the point in the scheme, according to a survey by financial adviser Clifton Asset Management.

The survey revealed that a third of small business owner-managers had never heard of the EFG and of those that had, 93% saw ‘little point' in applying for it. Of the small firms that applied for the loan only 1% were granted it.

"These figures back up the huge store of anecdotal evidence we constantly receive from the business owners who report it is near-impossible for them to access finance from the banks, regardless of the EFG," said Anthony Carty, director at Clifton Asset Management.

The EFG scheme was introduced in January to secure bank funding of up to £1m to businesses with a turnover of up to £25m.