Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to guarantee business loans by private lenders, if he wins the general election in May.

Cameron told business leaders at the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference on Tuesday (10 February), that the Conservatives would launch a new financing scheme for businesses called ‘Help to Grow’.

Cameron said: “Our ambition is to help 500 of our fastest-growing firms annually - giving entrepreneurs the access to the kind of finance their German equivalents would get.

He said that government-guaranteed loans would meet a funding gap of around £1 billion a year and that a pilot scheme of £100m will feature in the pre-election Budget.

Cameron continued: “We will plug this billion-pound gap by using the government’s balance sheet to guarantee loans by private lenders, or by co-investing public money alongside private money.”

The Prime Minister has hit the headlines recently after he announced he was “off bread” in a bid to lose weight - something the baking industry has since discouraged.

Off the back of this, British Baker launched the #WeLoveBread campaign, and visited Number 10 with a hoard of baking industry organisations to deliver letters to Cameron about his decision. 

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