Only £12m has so far been lent to small companies under the government's £1bn loan guarantee scheme for small businesses, according to research by the Financial Times.

Gordon Brown launched the scheme to try and ensure that banks continued to lend to small firms in the economic downturn and the PM recently stated that over 60,000 businesses had benefited from the scheme.

However, this figure has been called into question by business groups including the Federation of Small Business (FSB) and The Forum of Private Business (FPB).

"Government measures to underwrite bank lending to small businesses are not being delivered," said Phil Orford of the FPB.

This sentiment was echoed by Stephen Alambritis of the FSB: "There's only a trickle of lending, the concept of banks being helped to help the economy is not working."