Business Secretary Vince Cable will announce today the first steps in creating a Government-backed business bank, including new Government funding of £1 billion.

It will aim to attract private sector funding to support up to £10 billion of new and additional business lending.

The Government will build a single institution that will address long-standing, structural gaps in the supply of finance, identified in Tim Breedon’s report on non-bank finance. It will bring together in one place Government finance support for small and mid-sized businesses. It will also control the Government’s interests in a new wholesale funding mechanism which will be developed to unlock institutional investment to benefit small businesses.

A NEW initiative backed by the Scottish Government, mortgage lenders and home builders could help thousands of first-time buyers on to the property ladder was launched yesterday. The New Home Mortgage Indemnity scheme will give people wishing to buy a new-build property the opportunity to borrow 95 per cent of the cost of the home. Twelve housebuilders have signed up to the scheme along with RBS and Nationwide. Halifax/ Bank of Scotland are expected to follow. The maximum sales price for properties on the scheme will be £250,000.

The Scottish Government believe the scheme could help 6,000 people to get on on the property ladder over the next three years.