British Business Bank Supports £6.8bn of Finance for Smaller Businesses in 2024/25, Returning Statutory Profit Before Tax of £144m

British Business Bank 2024/25 Impact reflects a record year, with £6.8 billion in small business loans helping businesses grow and come up with new ideas. The British Business Bank’s annual report shows how it has helped create jobs, develop regions, and promote the green economy. This makes it clear that it is a national economic development bank.

Louis Taylor, CEO, British Business Bank, said: “In a busy and productive 2024/25, the British Business Bank amplified its role, delivering significant impact in driving economic growth and innovation and playing its part in the economic transformation of the UK’s Nations and regions.

“The Bank returned a pre-tax profit of £144m this year. Our activities in 2024/25 are expected to produce an impact of 38,000 additional jobs and £8.0bn of gross value added over the life of the finance.

“At the same time, we have undertaken a significant reshaping of our organisation to prepare for an expanded mandate and long-term ambitions. Having an economic development bank with permanent capital and a consistent risk appetite, underpinning the UK venture and growth market through its cycles, is a powerful and very positive development.”

Performance against 2024/25 key performance indicators

The Bank performed strongly against targets set against its measured objectives in the last financial year:

• Driving sustainable growth: ensuring smaller businesses can access the right type of finance they need to start, survive and grow – £385.8m of debt commitments, versus a target of £382.5m, and £2,015.5m of guarantee commitments, versus a target of £1,825.7m
• Backing innovation: ensuring innovative businesses can access the right capital to start and scale – £881.8m of equity commitments versus a target of £895.7m
• Unlocking potential: unlocking growth by ensuring entrepreneurs can access the finance they need regardless of where and who they are – £707.1m of gross deployment outside of London versus a target of £649.8m
• Building the modern, green economy: financing ground-breaking solutions to climate change and helping smaller businesses transition to net zero so they thrive in a green future – the Bank launched the pilot of a new Green Growth Guarantee Scheme

The British Business Bank’s impact in 2024/25

Alongside its Annual Report and Accounts, the British Business Bank has published its second annual Impact Report. In 2024/25, the Bank supported a total of £6.8bn of finance for smaller businesses – £1.2bn of our public funding, £2.6bn of lending guaranteed and an additional £3.0bn of private capital crowded in. 

This enabled the Bank to support 24,000 businesses that hadn’t received Bank-supported funding before, as well as 4,000 that were first funded by the Bank before 2024/25. 84% of the businesses supported were outside of London 

The expected impacts over the life of this finance are:

• The creation of 38,000 additional jobs
• £18.0bn of additional business turnover, equivalent to £8.0bn expected increase in UK economic output 
• A more than £100m boost to GVA in each and every UK Nation and region

Other key figures

• Statutory profit before tax of £144m
• 4.2% five-year adjusted return on capital employed[1] across both commercial and development activity
• £83.6m of realised gains in 2024/25, taking the Bank’s lifetime Multiple on Invested Capital (MOIC) to 2.3x
• Underlying operating costs as a proportion of Assets Under Management reduced to 1.22%
• Investment portfolio growth of 19% to £4.7bn, made up of £3.2bn of equity and £1.5bn of debt

Stephen Welton, Chair, British Business Bank, said: “With a proven track record on a nationwide basis in driving economic growth, innovation and jobs, over the next ten years we expect the British Business Bank to become a far more visible and recognisable institution, firmly embedded in the national narrative of smaller business growth and success.

“A rise in our total financial capacity to £25.6bn will enable us to increase annual investments to around £2.5bn a year and to crowd in even more third party capital.”