Report and publications
Devolved Nation project overview
The make-up of sub-national economies can vary significantly within a particular nation. Factors such as location (urban/ rural/coastal), the background of business owners (gender, age and ethnicity), the local business base, the size/maturity of businesses, and the sectoral make up all have a part to play. This project seeks to understand the extent to which these differing characteristics affect or influence attitudes towards the use of external finance amongst the SME population.
This report seeks to better understand the differences between sub-national access to finance economies, whilst simultaneously undertaking a devolved nations comparison. This is the second year the Bank has supported this project, after publishing a first suite of nation specific sub-regional access to finance reports in 2024. This research was completed in partnership with Business Gateway.
Scotland Findings
- 58% of Scottish SMEs reported using finance
- 41% requiring additional financing over the next 12 months
- 70% requiring finance felt confident about securing it
Sub-national findings
- 38% of Highlands and Islands based SMEs were using finance
- Scotland South based SMEs were least inclined to recognise any barriers to finance
Devolved Nations comparison
- Scotland’s proportion of SMEs that anticipated using finance for investment in research/process improvement/significant maintenance was 35%, the highest of all devolved nations, with 30% in Northern Ireland and 17% in Wales
- Scotland had a higher proportion of SMEs facing barriers to finance (41%) than Northern Ireland and Wales (both 21%)
