The scheme, which was launched by the Bank of England (BoE) and the Treasury last summer, offers cheap credit to banks on the condition that they improve lending to the UK non-financial sector.

Since its August 2012 launch the banks that have drawn money under the scheme have actually reduced net lending by £3.5bn (£1.1bn in Q3 2012 and £2.4bn in Q4 2012), while BoE deputy governor Paul Tucker admitted in February that FLS had not done enough to help businesses.

Another criticism of FLS is that it has been used to prop-up mortgage lending, thereby sustaining the housing bubble that - due to record low interest rates - has yet to fully burst.

However, in a welcome sign for UK print, it seems that FLS is finally having an impact where it was supposed to - amongst UK small business owners. Mark Nelson, director of Compass Business Finance, told PrintWeek that FLS-supported loans had started to become available from December.

"We've lent about £1m since December; the money is available and you can get hold of it although it's a bit of a tick-box exercise from a credit perspective and the kind of businesses that meet the requirements tend to be well-established rather than new or struggling," he said.

"But for those that qualify it will give you a saving of approximately 1%."

The FLS has a minimum borrowing limit of £25,000 and can be used for hire purchase but not lease agreements.

Meanwhile, with the £350m fourth round of the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) due to become available this summer, Nelson said that the mid-market was also set to benefit from an influx of government funds.

"We're working with a couple of lenders who are drawing up their criteria at the moment - a lot of it is going to be to do with gearing and liquidity, so covering any new debt through your existing profits," he added.

"If you're borrowing £1m to buy a new machine but that it's replacing a machine with £500,000 outstanding debt on it then they will take into account that that £500,000 is coming off the balance sheet, but you still need to be able to cover the payments on the new debt from existing profits."

Nelson said in "marginal cases" a lender might take into consideration the expected increase in profitability from installing a more efficient machine, but stressed that he did not expect this to be the norm. "They want to lend prudently," he added.

Applications for RGF funds outstripped the £350m fourth-round pot by more than 400%, coming in at £1.9bn across the 309 bids.

The top regional bidder - both in value and number of bids - was the North West, which submitted 58 bids (19% of the total) for a combined total of £316m (17% of the total).

All bids will now be put to the Independent Advisory Panel, chaired by Lord Heseltine, which will make recommendations to a Ministerial Group led by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.