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British Business Bank agrees ENABLE Build guarantee with Hampshire Trust Bank

Press release 21 September 2022

Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has secured an ENABLE Build guarantee via the British Business Bank and The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

It follows HTB’s previous ENABLE Guarantee, agreed in 2017, which has so far provided £342 million in SME housebuilder funding and supported the building of 1547 new housing units.

The new guarantee means HTB can continue to grow its support to small business housebuilders across the UK.

The British Business Bank’s ENABLE Build is a variant of its ENABLE Guarantee programme and targets SME housebuilders by reducing the amount of capital required to be held against such lending by the participating bank. Under both the ENABLE Guarantee and ENABLE Build programmes, the UK government takes on a portion of the lender’s risk on a portfolio of loans to smaller businesses, in return for a fee.

ENABLE Build was launched as a separate variant of the ENABLE Guarantee to provide £1 billion of guarantee support to smaller housebuilders. In the 12 months to March 2022 the ENABLE Build programme supported over £330 million of lending to more than 130 small housebuilders.

Increasing the current housebuilding supply in the UK is a priority for decision-makers across local and national governments. This ENABLE Build transaction will allow HTB to increase funding to SME housebuilders, helping them deliver more housing and allowing more people to get onto the property ladder. - Reinald de Monchy Managing Director, Guarantee and Wholesale Solutions, British Business Bank
We all know that building houses in the UK is dominated by a handful of gigantic players but SME housebuilders are vital, not only for our market but also for our communities and our country as a whole. They are often the beating heart of regional and local property markets and they provide a harbour for the training and development of design, craftmanship and skill in the battle against homogeneity. But SME housebuilders have faced some stiff headwinds. The ENABLE Build guarantee shows great commitment from the British Business Bank to support SME housebuilders. We are confident that HTB will be able to support an increased number of SME housebuilders to improve housing supply, create employment and stimulate local economies across the country. - Alex Upton Managing Director, Development Finance at Hampshire Trust Bank

Notes to editors

About Hampshire Trust Bank

Hampshire Trust Bank is a specialist bank, staffed by experts focused on helping UK businesses realise their ambitions. Our dedicated Asset Finance, Development Finance and Specialist Mortgages divisions ensure that businesses receive the outstanding service, lasting relationships, integrity and expertise they need to prosper. We also provide savings accounts to individuals and businesses and since we lend only to businesses, our savers can be sure their money will be used to boost the British economy. The bank is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority.

For more information, please visit our website htb.co.uk.

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 £8.5 billion 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 billion of finance to 1.67 million 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 british-business-bank.co.uk.

The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK Government, the British Business Bank plc or its subsidiaries or any other party of Hampshire Trust Bank or its products or services.

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