Reforming the UK financial system to promote regional development in post-COVID Britain

Abstract

The UK government faces a massive post-COVID problem in restructuring failing companies and rebuilding its already depressed regions. A missing part of the solution is to link government as well as private-sector funding to the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the regions. The institutional structure that is required has precedents in the UK, which can be used as the basis for reforming the funding of its SMEs.