In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the business secretary said that measures the government had put in place have saved many businesses from closure.

Government statistics claim that the Enterprise Finance Guarantee is assessing more than £680m of eligible applications from some 6,000 companies while the Regional Loan Transition Funds has agreed £30.5m of loans.

"The full economic benefits and financial returns on these investments can only be assessed over time. I am confident that we have made the right moves, but I want to test our design and the effectiveness of our interventions in due course," he told the paper.

In the interview, Lord Mandelson rejected criticism from some of the business community that the measures were not enough to make the impact needed and had caused confusion among business leaders.

However, Peter Edwards, managing director of HM Printers, claimed Lord Mandelson and the government had just "spun a good yarn that help is on the way".

He said: "The manufacturing sector has been abandoned as the poor relation to banking and insurance. My recommendation to Lord Mandelson is to get off businesses backs, lower taxes, including employment taxes like NIC, get rid of the myriad of regulations and quangos and let us get on with earning a living for ourselves."

However, Peter Wise, managing director at Minuteman Press, said that in times of hardship, some business sectors have been swift to apportion blame for their business woes on the government, along with "suicidal pricing".

He said: "I am not convinced. Printers that perceive suicidal pricing may be experiencing myopia.

"By looking inward, directors will be astonished to find they are operating with excessive overheads; poor supplier terms, weak client-vetting procedures; an unhealthy obsession with turnover versus profit; and a void in marketing activity resulting in their inability to compete."