The Government is preparing to lend money directly to businesses from January.

Leader of the House Harriet Harman revealed the move as she told MPs about a new small business loan guarantee scheme.

"It's true to say that, while lending figures are starting to show increasing lending to small businesses, there are still businesses having problems," she said.

Small firms borrowing from a bank will receive cash from the Government, which will effectively be acting as a bank.

The Government is likely to provide more than half the cash firms need, with banks expected to come up with no more than 25%.

The move reflects frustration among ministers that businesses are still finding it difficult to get the credit they need, despite the Government's £37 billion bail-out of the banks.

The proposed new scheme would apparently enable the Government to get round the problem by cutting out the banks and providing firms with the credit directly.

Meanwhile bankers who have stacked up billions of pounds of losses at Credit Suisse will receive their annual bonus based on the worthless investments they made on behalf of the bank.

About 2,000 investment bankers will share a bonus with a face value  £3.1 billion that is not worth the paper it’s printed on.

This is a novel way of a bank saying thank you to the people who, along with many other speculators, are responsible for the worldwide recession.

The bonus is paid in bonds that have no value as the market for trading them has collapsed

The bank says the idea is that if the bonus is based on sensible lending decisions, then the bankers will win as the bonds mature in value, but if not, the staff will pick up the reward they deserve.