A British business bank will be created to shake up the market in business finance, the business secretary, Vince Cable, will announce on Tuesday in a major speech setting out a new industrial strategy for Britain. Cable admits talks are still under way within Whitehall on "the scale and modus operandi of such a new institution", but for the first time he stresses the proposal -- long discussed by progressives in his party -- will go ahead. Cable will stress that "the measure of the institution's success will not be the scale of its own direct interventions, but how far it shakes up the market in business finance and helps to ease constraints for high-growth firms. "There is a real shortage of long-term 'patient' capital for businesses. Try and secure a loan for more than five years of venture capital and options are very limited especially for innovative, high-growth potential firms." His remarks suggest that the bank is initially likely to be focused on small businesses but will do more than merely collate the government's existing funding initiatives. In his speech, Cable suggests the bank could operate through alternative providers such as Handelsbanken, the Swedish bank operating successfully in the UK, the Co-op and Aldermore, a bank dedicated to help small and medium-sized firms. Cable notes the latest official statistics show that in the last 12 months 33% of firms that applied for a loan were rejected. By contrast, he argues, "big firms by and large are able to raise