The UK's small and medium-sized businesses are struggling to grow because support structures target start-ups and businesses preparing for exit, says the accountancy group ACCA.

ACCA interviewed businesses in nine countries and reviewed business support literature for a report called The Growth Challenge.

It found that start-ups were catered for in schemes such as the British Business Bank, New Enterprise Allowance and Start-up Loans.

Also that mature businesses received help reinvesting, exiting or listing on junior markets such as AIM.

“However, SMEs have pointed to a gap in support when it comes to that critical growth stage of the business development journey, when the enterprise is still in its infancy but past the ‘birth’ phase,” said Manos Schizas, ACCA’s senior economic analyst.

“Particular concerns about this have arisen since the post- 2010 austerity measures have started to affect local, regional and national levels of funding.

“There was a general concern amongst UK SMEs in our research because local authorities, in particular, did not have a definite focus on business growth.”

But Schizas added the UK was a “fertile ground” for entrepreneurial activity, leading the EU’s top economies in its Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) score.