1,500 smaller businesses in Scotland newly received financial support from the British Business Bank in the 2024/25 financial year, enabling investment, funding recruitment and stimulating growth.
Figures released today as part of the Bank’s second annual Impact Report estimate that £800 million in additional business turnover, equivalent to a £400 million boost to economic output will be generated by Scottish businesses backed by the Bank over the lifetime of their finance.
As well as the increases in turnover and economic output, an additional 1,600 jobs are expected to be created over time, with around 16,000 jobs already supported. Scottish businesses represented around 6% of all firms newly supported by the Bank during the 12 month period – in line with the share of the UK’s business population.
One of the key drivers of this impact is the Bank’s £150m Investment Fund for Scotland, which this month announced it has delivered more than £25m to Scottish businesses since it launched 18 months ago, supporting 58 firms across the country. Alongside the significant investment from the bank, an additional £26m in private sector funding has also been committed, making the total investment into Scotland more than £52m so far.
The Impact Report comes as the Bank gears up to deliver a step change in financing support to smaller businesses after its financial capacity was increased to £25.6bn in June’s Spending Review, enabling it to increase annual investments to around £2.5bn a year and to crowd in more third party capital.
The report underlines the Bank’s continued commitment to Scotland and wider Nations and regions.84% of the businesses supported by the Bank in 2024/25 were based outside of London – helping to deliver more than a £100m boost to economic output in each and every UK Nation and region.
Susan Nightingale, Director, UK Network, Scotland at the British Business Bank, said: “The British Business Bank is playing a significant role in creating an impact, driving economic growth and innovation, and contributing to the economic transformation of the UK’s Nations and regions. Estimated impact figures for Scotland show that our programmes are continuing to reach a large number of businesses each year, helping them to grow, reach new markets and expand to hire new staff.
“As we continue to tackle imbalances in access to finance, particularly in terms of geographical spread and diversity among founders, we look forward to supporting even more of Scotland’s smaller businesses to thrive in the year ahead.”
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The national picture
Nationally in 2024/25, the Bank supported a total of £6.8bn of finance for smaller businesses – £1.2bn of its own public funding, £2.6bn of lending guaranteed and an additional £3.0bn of private capital crowded in.
This enabled the Bank to support 24,000 businesses that hadn’t received Bank-supported funding before, as well as 4,000 that were first funded by the Bank before 2024/25. 84% of the businesses supported were outside of London. The expected impacts over the life of this finance are:
- The creation of 38,000 additional jobs
- £18.0bn of additional business turnover, equivalent to an extra £8.0bn of economic output
- A more than £100m boost in economic output in each and every UK Nation and region.
