The British Business Bank has supported 900 Welsh businesses in the past year, supporting 10,800 existing jobs.
This activity is expected to help Welsh businesses earn £500 million in additional business turnover over the lifetime of their finance, equivalent to £200 million in economic output to the Welsh economy. It is also expected to help create 900 new jobs over the lifetime of the finance.
One of the key drivers of this impact is the bank’s £130 million Investment Fund for Wales (IFW), which last month reached its £18 million milestone, following 71 investments into over 67 businesses located across Wales, It includes an additional £3 million of private sector co-investment which has been leveraged as a result of the IFW’s support. The fund offers loans from £25,000 up to equity investment of £5 million throughout the region.
The bank's second annual Impact Report, which covers 2024/25, comes as it gears up to deliver a step change in financing support to smaller businesses after its financial capacity was increased to £25.6 billion in June’s Spending Review, enabling it to increase annual investments to around £2.5 billion a year and to crowd in more third party capital.
A total of 84% of the businesses supported by the bank in 2024/25 were based outside of London.
Susan Nightingale, UK Network Director at the British Business Bank, said:
“Delivering impact is why we exist. By improving access to finance for smaller businesses, we help drive growth and prosperity across the UK, measured in the creation of new jobs and increased economic output.
“The data in the new Impact Report reflects the growing role we play in supporting entrepreneurs and business owners, something that is underpinned by over a decade of proven delivery. It’s through this work that we ensure smaller businesses right across Wales, can realise their full potential.”
Nationwide the bank facilitated £6.8 billion of finance for smaller businesses, including £1.2 billion in public funding, £2.6 billion in lending guaranteed, and £3.0 billion in private capital crowding 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
- £18.0 billion of additional business turnover, equivalent to an extra £8.0 billion of economic output
- A more than £100 million boost in economic output in each and every UK nation and region
