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British Business Bank agrees £100m increase of ENABLE Build Guarantee facility with United Trust Bank

Press release 13 December 2023

The British Business Bank has increased its existing ENABLE Build facility with United Trust Bank (UTB) by £100m.

This builds on the existing £250m transaction agreed in April 2021, bringing the total facility to £350m.

To date, UTB have provided more than £830m of funding to smaller housebuilders through the ENABLE Build programmes. This transaction will allow UTB to boost lending by a further £700m to these businesses and potentially support the creation of around 3,800 new homes across England and Wales.

The British Business Bank’s ENABLE Build programme directly supports banks wishing to fund smaller housebuilders, a sector that has traditionally struggled to access the finance it needs.

The programme is designed to encourage additional lending to smaller housebuilders by reducing the amount of capital held against such lending by the participating banks.

UTB was incorporated in England in 1955 and established itself as an independent specialist bank, mainly providing development finance to smaller housebuilders as they tackled the post-war housing shortage.

The Bank has grown substantially over the last 20 years and now offers a variety of secured funding solutions to housebuilders and developers, smaller businesses and consumers. In October this year, UTB’s loan book exceeded £3bn for the first time.

We are delighted to have agreed an increase to this ENABLE Build facility, which further strengthens our commitment to helping unlock finance for smaller housebuilders. This increase will allow UTB to supply even more development finance loans to help housebuilders deliver homes and create more jobs to boost the UK economy. - Reinald de Monchy Managing Director, Guarantee and Wholesale Solutions, British Business Bank
Our relationship with the British Business Bank and our involvement in the ENABLE Build Guarantee programme has helped us to provide SME housebuilders with the funding they need to create thousands of new homes, often during challenging economic periods. UTB is committed to supporting the resurgence of the SME housebuilding sector and this additional £100m guarantee will be set to work straightaway. - Adam Bovingdon Head of Property Development, United Trust Bank

Further Information

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Notes to editors

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 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 £12.4 billion 1  of finance to more than 90,000 smaller businesses 2 .

As well as increasing the supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.

The British Business Bank is also responsible for administering the government’s three Coronavirus loan schemes and its Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4 billion in finance to 1.67 million businesses. These schemes are now closed to new applications.

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. Wholly owned by HM government, the Bank 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 the British Business Bank.

United Trust Bank

United Trust Bank (UTB) is an expanding UK specialist bank founded in 1955 providing a wide range of secured funding facilities for individuals and businesses and deposit accounts for individuals, businesses and charities.

The Bank has dedicated divisions providing development finance, bridging finance, structured finance, asset finance and mortgages and their in-depth knowledge combined with commercial awareness makes it the lender of choice for finance brokers, developers and individuals seeking a high quality, bespoke service and a reliable source of funding.

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