Recovery Loan Scheme offers over £63m of lending to smaller businesses in Northern Ireland

The British Business Bank announces today that, through the Recovery Loan Scheme, accredited lenders have offered over £63m to smaller businesses in Northern Ireland as they steer a path towards a sustainable recovery.

Of the £63.7m of total funding offered through 347 facilities, £53.4m has been drawn down through 309 facilities.

Total funding offered from the scheme represents 1% of the national total, slightly below the relative size of the nation’s business population (3%)

A total of £4.51bn of lending has been offered through over 20,643 facilities across the UK, £3.83bn has been drawn down through 18,338 facilities.

The Recovery Loan Scheme launched in April 2021 and was originally scheduled to run until 31 December 2021. At Autumn Budget 2021, the government extended the scheme by six months to 30 June 2022 and made some adjustments to its terms. The government provides a guarantee of 80% for loans made before 1 January 2022 and 70% for loans after that date. The borrower remains 100% liable for the debt.

The government announced today that there will be a successor scheme to RLS, which will open for applications in August 2022. Further details will follow when the scheme goes live.

Susan Nightingale, UK Network Director, Northern Ireland, British Business Bank, said: “The British Business Bank is committed to supporting smaller businesses in accessing the finance they need to grow sustainably. Nearly three hundred businesses across Northern Ireland have taken out loans under the Recovery Loan Scheme. This will better position them to confront both the challenges and opportunities that are ahead.”

Data as provided to British Business Bank by Recovery Loan Scheme delivery partners as at 12 July 2022. A breakdown of loans offered by region and sector is provided below.

As the scheme matures, we intend to publish performance data half-yearly, based on end of September and end of March data.

Offered by Region/Nation

Offered by Sector

Drawn by Region/Nation

Drawn by Sector

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank’s core programmes support over £8.5bn^[1] of finance to almost 95,000 smaller businesses^[2]. The British Business Bank is responsible for running the government’s Coronavirus business loan schemes and Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4 bn of finance to 1.67m businesses. The schemes are now closed to new applications.

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. In light of the coronavirus pandemic and EU Exit, the Finance Hub has expanded and it now targets a wider business audience. It continues to provide information and support for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses, but now provides increased content, information and products for businesses in survival and recovery mindsets. The Finance Hub has been redesigned and repositioned to reflect this, during this period of economic uncertainty.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at www.british-business-bank.co.uk

[1] Figures as at 31 March 2021

[2] Figures as at 31 March 2021