THE wealthy City of London financial business district has this week set up a project to help small firms in the neighbouring East End survive the recession—and be ready to expand afterwards. The project run at Whitechapel’s East London Small Business centre offers company health checks’

THE wealthy City of London financial business district has this week set up a project to help small firms in the neighbouring East End survive the recession—and be ready to expand afterwards.

The project being run at Whitechapel’s East London Small Business centre in Wentworth Street, off Brick Lane, offers company health checks’ to see what opportunities there are in the market.

A second programme by the Corporation of London is also being launched in Tower Hamlets and five other Inner London boroughs which is backed by the Federation of Small Businesses.

ADVICE

It is being promoted by high street banks including Barclays and HSBC to their business customers.

“Business owners don’t always know where to go for advice or have the time to look,” said the federation’s chairman John Wright.

“It’s vital that small firms get authoritative advice during these tough times. So the projects are welcome.”

The City Corporation, which looks after the Square Mile business district, is putting �105,000 into the kitty to run the two 12-month projects to give small firms the expertise to improve their financial viability.