With latest Bank of England reports indicating that lending to SMEs has drastically fallen, even in spite of the industry’s £2.6 billion boost from Funding for Lending, there is still obviously something very wrong with the way in which such businesses are given access to funding.

It’s a well-worn line, and one which it seems certain that both the Government and the Bank is tired of hearing, but is a prevalent and serious problem nonetheless.

Indeed, for all the good intention of the FLS, there is no doubting that in real lending terms it has failed to do its prescribed job.

Not that the Bank of England is concerned with boosting such figures, either. Speaking to attendees of the Supporting Business for Growth event last week, the Bank’s Executive Director of Markets, Paul Fisher, seemed to suggest that the FLS was still a viable solution for SMEs’ problems.

His primary concern, he said, was that the scheme was intended to stimulate the economy rather than to alleviate pressure on struggling banks, and that fundamentally it was not the Bank of England’s role to fund banks’ lending.

Indeed, in the latest SME Finance Monitor, compiled by researcher BDRC Continental and which covered the first quarter of this year, almost half of smaller firms claimed to have no knowledge of any schemes to improve the affordability or availability of finance.

Indeed, awareness of the benefits (arguable though they are) of FLS specifically were at a shockingly low 27 per cent.

Though this was championed as being the most recognisable of any of the named initiatives, including the Government’s own Business Bank creation, there is no doubt that businesses simply have to be made more aware of what is available to them.

It seems that in order to promote any sort of growth in these sectors that the Government – and, arguably, mainstream lenders – must promote understanding and awareness above any other values.

It was interesting to note that Paul admitted that there are “interesting things happening in the non-bank lending market”, but failed to make any further comment or even recognised the value in what could be offered by the niche sector.

Specialist lenders, with both their appreciation for the intermediary market and the role they play in education, seem perfectly poised to fill such a lending gap if they were only made more accessible to credit-hungry SMEs.

Institutions such as the NACFB, which promotes the services offered by its commercial brokers above anything else, should be applauded and given more recognition for the role they do – or at least could – fulfil.

Hopefully, the mark of Vince Cable’s personal recommendation of the Association’s Small Business Finance Directory is the first of many that the trade body will receive.

Through the use of its short and easy-to-use checklist, businesses in need of finance are sure to be linked with the best broker to source appropriate finance for them, one who both suits a firm’s needs and is geographically convenient.

However, Adam Tyler, the NACFB’s Chief Executive, said the problem comes when “giving a voice” to alternative financers and valuable options they can provide to borrowing businesses.

If given the proper precedence, tools such as the Small Business Finance Directory could propel alternative financing options – including asset finance, leasing and even specialist mortgages – into the mainstream consciousness, and give SMEs the lifeline they apparently need so desperately.

Fundamentally, the question remains as to who responsibility for such publicity lies with. Though the NACFB and other, similar trade bodies champion the cause well and have the listening ear of Government, there is much more than can still be done in alerting businesses to appropriate solutions.

Perhaps instead of working so hard to rehash plans to set up local, German-influenced banks, Shadow Minister for Small Businesses Toby Perkins should convince his party that the real solution already exists in the specialist short term market.