New leasing business in the UK grew by 5% to £20.6bn in 2012, despite December seeing a year-on-year decline, according to new figures released by trade body the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA).

The data, which excludes high value deals in excess of £20m, shows levels of new business dropped by 15% compared to December 2011, while business for the final quarter of 2012 was the same as the same period the year before.

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When high value deals were included, new business values declined, year on year, by 22% for December and 6% for the last three months of 2012, but rose by 3% over the year.

When viewed by sector, IT equipment finance performed well over the year, with 17% new business growth compared to 2011, while plant and machinery finance also recorded double digit growth, at 12% over the same period. Vehicle finance also grew, up 5% for cars and 4% for commercial vehicles. However aircraft, ships and rolling stock and business equipment finance both decreased, by 11% and 6% respectively.

Julian Rose, FLA’s head of asset finance, said: "More firms, especially smaller ones, are seeing asset finance as an affordable solution to their business equipment investment needs, but more can be done to further increase awareness.

"We launched the Small Business Finance Directory website last year to help businesses find asset finance brokers and lenders in their local area, and are currently discussing with Government ways for their proposed Business Bank to promote further take-up of this important source of finance for small firms."

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