UK broker survey: challenges to overcome but brokers and SMEs are upbeat

Published: 08/07/2026

The UK's brokers and SMEs are in a confident mood — but familiar challenges, including barriers to borrowing, remain. That's according to our survey of bosses from 49 brokerage businesses across Britain.

Most were surveyed in person at Treyd's booth at the NACFB Commercial Finance Expo, held in Birmingham, with the remainder responding to a follow-up email survey afterwards. Here's what they told us.

Brokers are confident and getting high-quality enquiries

The brokers we spoke to in Birmingham were bullish. Some 86% said they were confident of growing their brokerage business over the next 12 months — and just 2% felt pessimistic.

The mood in Birmingham, we noticed, was decidedly upbeat.

Net sentiment among SMEs is positive

Brokers' buoyant mood is logical because their perception is that SME clients are also doing well and creating the demand for financing. Brokers say four times as many SME clients are confident (49%) than pessimistic (12%) — a striking sentiment.

Many businesses, then, are on the hunt for financing and in growth mode. And this view from brokers tallies with what we heard in our UK Trading Pulse survey, which showed SMEs are far more optimistic about their own prospects than about the UK economy more generally.

But brokers cited common barriers to SME funding

We also asked brokers what's holding back those businesses struggling to secure financing — and four factors stood out. The first is that some simply have too much debt to get lenders comfortable with providing fresh funding. And many struggle to put up the security or assets to lock in financing.

Meanwhile, brokers pointed to two factors we see repeatedly at Treyd. They told us that they continue to see an unwillingness from mainstream lenders to fund SMEs and a lack of awareness among businesses about the alternative finance options beyond conventional loans.

Capital-intensive sectors drive demand

Finally, brokers revealed the industries behind SMEs' appetite for fresh funding, with a need to closely manage working capital common in the top four sectors. Respondents expect companies in wholesale and distribution, manufacturing, and construction and property to lead the way in aiming to secure finance, closely followed by retail and e-commerce — a consistently high-performing sector for UK SMEs.

Products that strengthen cash flow are key

Reflecting on the survey, our co-founder and CEO Peter Beckman said:

It's encouraging to see both brokers and SMEs in upbeat mood at the halfway point of the year, with confident businesses meaning brokers expect to be busy in the coming months.

But brokers' concerns reflect many of the same challenges we've seen in the past, including firms saddled with too much long-term debt. Plus, large, traditional lenders are showing an unwillingness to lend and demanding security and assets that a lot of SMEs simply don't have to hand.

Against this backdrop, education is important, particularly as brokers are telling us that businesses often aren't aware of alternative finance options. These include working capital-based solutions for companies in the industries where cash flow is king and which will drive activity in the UK economy throughout this year and beyond.