The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has urged the government to help small business insurance customers by pressuring banks into lending again after it emerged that unemployment has reached nearly two million.
David Frost, director general of the organisation, said small business insurance customers will continue to have cashflow difficulties if banks do not unblock credit markets.
"Businesses are being increasingly forced against their will to let good staff go. Even with some staff accepting pay freezes and working fewer hours, it's clear that employers are facing serious financial pressures," he asserted.
Mr Frost added that the government must get financial institutions to assist small business insurance customers trying to borrow money to avoid unemployment levels rising further.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that there were 250,000 redundancies between September and November last year, an increase of 78,000 compared with the previous three months ending August 2008.
