Craig wants to open a garage. Nothing fancy. A hydraulic inspection platform and enough space to keep eight motors dry. Repairs, services and MoTs. After an apprenticeship and 10 years of experience it should be easy.

Except it will not be, thanks to the worst banking crisis in generations. Craig puts in 70-hour weeks as a salaried truck mechanic. He would do the same in order to better himself in his trade. But a bank is now no more likely to advance him the £9,000 he needs than it is to give him a Fabergé egg to decorate the mantelpiece of his terraced house in south Birmingham.