The UK’s second largest bank will freeze overdraft charges for small businesses, in an attempt to relieve growing financial pressure on the sector, it has been announced.

NatWest, owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, said up to a million customers could benefit from the move, which comes into effect on December 1 and will last until the end of 2009.

The bank also said overdrafts for small businesses would stay in place for 12 months without demands for repayment.

A spokeswoman for the British Banking Association (BBA) said the move was an attempt to support struggling clients.

The government should consider lending directly to businesses and mortgages as banks fail to deliver more, the Lib Dems have suggested

The government made its recent multi-billion pound bailout of three of the UK's largest banks, on the condition that they would restore the level of funds available to small businesses to 2007 levels.

But the Liberal Democratics say that despite this, lending rates are still low.

Party leader Nick Clegg has called the government "supine" and "weak" for not forcing banks to act after giving them billions of taxpayers' pounds, telling BBC Radio 4:

BT has said it is still on track with its plans to roll out next-generation super-fast broadband across the UK, despite concern from some shareholders regarding the economic situation.

It was reported last week that some shareholders had expressed concern about BT’s £1.5bn fibre broadband plan, suggesting the organisation would be better off keeping hold of the cash instead.

But a BT spokesman told silicon.com: "The project isn't at risk because of the recession. There's nothing that is affecting that investment decision at this moment."

He added, however, that it would be wrong to say for sure that the project would be "completely unaffected by the recession".

At a time when the UK’s economic climate sees many small businesses struggling at the mercy of their lenders, there are three words that must be remembered: Cash is king.

Cash is generally considered as being the most important tool for a business’s survival, without which, a business will inevitably fold. 

Regardless of size or profits, a business will begin to struggle if it runs out of cash. While a business may survive without cash for a short period of time, if staff or suppliers cannot be paid, then products and services cannot be sold, and this cycle will quickly run a business into the ground.

For this reason, and particularly while trying to survive the credit crunch, it is vital for any business that cash flow is carefully monitored.

According to a new survey, over 70 per cent of small and medium enterprises (SME’s) would switch provider if their service became unreliable.

The survey conducted by Zen also revealed that the level of support offered buy the ISP was the most important factor in choosing a business broadband provider, with 85 per cent of SME’s placing this at the top of their criteria.

However, the survey revealed that small businesses do not switch ISPs often, and will generally stay with one provider until problems arrive. Just 13 per cent of businesses are currently considering a switch, while more than half of SME’s said they were happy with their current provider. Just over a third of small businesses had made a switch in the past year.

As 98 per cent of SMEs find a reliable broadband connection to be vital to their business operation, it is unsurprising that just 40 per cent would switch on the basis of saving money.