Economy: Cable calls on banks to ease borrowing

The Liberal Democrat politician said one of the "big problems" for the UK in the aftermath of the recession was the reluctance of lenders to give credit to "perfectly good" businesses.

He said he was working with Tory Chancellor George Osborne to try to address this.

Mr Cable said: "The job of the new coalition Government is to do better than the last one in making sure that that credit flows and I have a key role in that."

He said he was "heavily engaged" with Mr Osborne in "trying to make sure that the banks perform".

Mr Cable added: "One of the big problems we have at the moment

following the banking collapse is they're still not lending to perfectly good small to medium-sized companies."

Banks should "act in the wider national interest, he said, and highlighted the role the private sector would play in any economic recovery.

Speaking during a visit to Glasgow, Mr Cable said he wanted to create an environment in which private companies had the confidence to expand – "That's what's going to have to happen" to boost economic growth.

"It's going to be very difficult in an environment where you have an enormous Government budget deficit to stimulate the economy through public spending."