The Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme designed to support businesses with a turnover of less than £25m will be continued for another 12 months, the chancellor announced today. Since its launch on 14 January 2009, nearly £1bn of eligible applications from almost 9,000 small and medium-sized businesses, are being processed or assessed. The extension of the scheme means that an additional £500m of bank lending will be made available to SMEs. The government will also create the Growth Capital Fund to invest in small and medium-sized businesses looking to borrow between £2m and £10m. The structure of the fund will be announced in the New Year. Meanwhile, in today's pre-Budget report the chancellor said that HM Revenue & Customs' 'time to pay' scheme, which allows companies with cashflow problems to postpone paying tax, would be extended for 'as long as needed'. John Whiting, tax policy director of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, said: 'The CIOT has seen evidence of how the current scheme has helped many businesses of all sizes survive the current economic downturn. The extension of the scheme will help those businesses that need help to continue into the upturn.'