Only 5,000 struggling small businesses have received cash under the Treasury’s coronavirus loans scheme more than three weeks since it was launched — raising concerns that emergency money is not reaching companies in need.

Fewer than one in 60 of more than 300,000 inquiries about chancellor Rishi Sunak’s coronavirus business interruption loan scheme has resulted in cash being approved, according to banks charged with making the loans.

The scheme, designed to encourage banks to lend by offering them a government guarantee for 80% of the amount, is seen as critical for keeping many of Britain’s 5.8 million small businesses alive.

However, despite Sunak’s promise to do “whatever it takes” to save the economy, business owners have complained that the scheme is snarled up in bureaucracy