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British Business Bank agrees £150m ENABLE Build transaction with specialist bank Shawbrook

Press release 16 January 2025

  • The £150m guarantee facility will allow Shawbrook to increase the amount of development finance it provides to UK smaller housebuilders
  • Over its lifetime, the guarantee facility is expected to support over £300m of finance to help fund the creation of new homes across England and Wales.

The British Business Bank has agreed an ENABLE Build transaction of up to £150m with specialist bank Shawbrook to increase the amount of development finance it provides to UK smaller housebuilders.

Shawbrook has surpassed £2bn of lending to UK property developers, creating over 8,000 new homes. The guarantee is expected to further support over £300m of finance to help fund the creation of new homes across England and Wales over its lifetime.

Shawbrook provides specialist lending products, which include complex structured credit facilities for growth-focused businesses, mortgages for professional landlords and property investors, and simple loans for individuals delivered digitally to over 350,000 customers.

The ENABLE Build programme is focused on encouraging additional lending to smaller housebuilders in the UK. The programme is open to UK incorporated banks, UK branches of foreign banks, asset and asset-based finance providers, as well as certain other categories of lenders which provide, or intend to provide, development finance to viable smaller housebuilders operating in the UK.

With this transaction, Shawbrook has become the third delivery partner for the programme, which was expanded from £1bn to £2bn at the Government’s 2024 Autumn Budget.

Michael Strevens, Head of Structured Guarantees, British Business Bank said:

The Government's recent expansion of ENABLE Build significantly increased the programme capacity, and this transaction with Shawbrook continues that momentum. We're delighted to partner with Shawbrook as the third delivery partner for the programme, and look forward to the initial £150m unlocking more finance for smaller housebuilders to build homes across England and Wales in 2025 and beyond.

Simon Knowles, Senior Director of Development Finance at Shawbrook comments:

Partnering with the British Business Bank on the ENABLE build scheme is a fantastic opportunity to grow our support for housebuilders. Shawbrook has a proven track record of supporting SME housebuilders, who are vital in helping meet the ever-growing demand for new homes. This partnership will strengthen the support we can offer across the UK.

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’s core programmes support over £17.4bn 1  of finance to almost 64,000 2  smaller businesses.

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 £80.4bn in finance to 1.67m 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). BBB Patient Capital Advisory Services Limited is an appointed representative of Langham Hall Fund Management LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority of the UK. A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at www.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, its subsidiaries or any other party of Shawbrook or its products or services.

About Shawbrook

We are a specialist bank. Driven by our purpose to power up ingenuity to create opportunity, we support real estate professionals, SMEs, and consumers with their pressing and often complex funding needs. We leverage our best-of-both proposition, combing great technology and human ingenuity, to understand our customers' individual needs and deliver the right finance solutions seamlessly and at scale.

Shawbrook Bank Limited is an operating entity of Shawbrook Group plc. Shawbrook Bank Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, and is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. 

Find out more at www.fca.org.uk or www.bankofengland.co.uk/pra

Visit www.shawbrook.co.uk and follow us on Twitter @ShawbrookBroker.

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