The British Business Bank’s ENABLE guarantee programmes have provided more than £2.3bn in lending to the construction and real estate sectors.
Construction received £1.7bn and real estate £655m.
Of this, £1.3bn came through ENABLE Build, unlocking finance for 5,866 new homes across the UK.
Over 1,000 smaller businesses in construction and real estate have accessed funding through ENABLE Guarantees and ENABLE Build.
This increased finance has supported investment, growth and job creation among smaller businesses.
Michael Strevens, managing director, structured financial institutions at British Business Bank, said: “It’s incredibly rewarding to reflect on the volume of lending to smaller and medium-sized businesses and the number of new homes that we’ve helped enable over the years.
“Ensuring an adequate supply of UK housing stock will continue to be a core priority for the Government, and through the ENABLE Guarantees programme and ENABLE Build, we will continue to support lenders and smaller businesses across the industry.”
Adam Bovingdon, head of property development at United Trust Bank (UTB), said: “UTB helped the British Business Bank develop its ENABLE Guarantees programme to be suitable for supporting housebuilding and was the first lender to take advantage of it when it was made available to the sector in 2017.
“We subsequently signed up to ENABLE Build and I am delighted to say that earlier this year UTB surpassed £1bn of ENABLE guaranteed lending across both programmes, delivering nearly 450 loan facilities to SME housebuilders and supporting the creation of around 4,700 new homes.
“Bearing in mind that during this period lenders and housebuilders have also had to contend with the Covid-19 pandemic and considerable economic and political volatility, it’s clear just how important this support has been.”
Bovingdon added: “ENABLE is an excellent example of successful state and private sector cooperation.”
Brian Berry, CEO of the Federation of Master Builders, said: “It’s positive to see that small housebuilders have taken advantage of ENABLE programmes.
“Financing is one of the top issues holding back small developers from building new homes and the more finance options there are the better.
“The ENABLE Build programme helps aid diversification of the UK’s housing market, which is essential to deliver the Government’s ambition of 1.5m new homes.”
