BBB boosted by £4.5bn
31/07/2025
The Secretary of State for the Department for Business and Trade has just announced that more than £4.5 billion is being allocated to the British Business Bank, as part of the Government’s ‘Backing your Business’ small business plan.
Four existing Bank initiatives are being extended or expanded to provide further support for smaller businesses:
The Bank’s flagship Growth Guarantee Scheme, established in August 2022, has been extended through the Spending Review period to 5 April 2030. This puts the scheme on a long-term footing and gives finance providers and smaller businesses certainty about its future.
The Start Up Loans programme has been expanded and will provide more than £1 billion of additional lending to entrepreneurs. The programme is being scaled up to provide 69,000 loans over the Spending Review period, with an expected increase in average loan size from £12,000 to £15,000.
The capacity of the ENABLE Guarantees programme has been increased from £2 billion to £5 billion, an uplift of £3 billion. The increased capacity will enable the Bank to support more finance providers to scale their support to smaller businesses, increasing the supply of finance and supporting the growth of a more diverse smaller business finance market.
The Bank’s Regional Angels Programme has been allocated an additional £340 million over the Spending Review period, a 30pct uplift, to improve access to early-stage equity.
Commenting on the news, Stephen Haddrill, Director General of the Finance and Leasing Association, said:
“The availability of funding underpins positive business sentiment. It is great to see the BBB’s key initiatives put on a long term footing to drive optimism and confidence, and most importantly of all, investment decisions that will make individual businesses better equipped this year than last.
“We note also in the Small Business Plan a new Business Growth Service to ensure that owners have access to the right support. Executed well, this service would be transformative.”
Comment on this article
