BBB responds to new strategic mandate to drive UK growth

At today’s Regional Investment Summit, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade unveiled a new Statement of Strategic Priorities for the British Business Bank (BBB), setting out a clear five-year direction to strengthen the Bank’s role in supporting the Government’s mission to drive UK economic growth.

The new mandate reinforces the Bank’s central role in ensuring smaller businesses across the UK can access the finance they need to start, scale, and stay. It follows the Spending Review announcement that expanded the Bank’s total financial capacity to £25.6 billion, enabling a significant increase in support for entrepreneurs and growth-focused firms.

Building on its strong track record since its creation in 2014, the Bank has now been tasked with delivering a “step change” in the availability of finance for smaller businesses, aligning with the scale of the Government’s growth ambitions.

Under the new Statement, the British Business Bank will focus on four key priorities:

Support the UK’s most promising businesses in Industrial Strategy priority sectors to scale and stay in the country.
Make finance markets work better for smaller businesses.
Unlock potential in people and places, ensuring growth is spread across all regions and nations of the UK.
Mobilise institutional capital at scale to drive long-term investment in the UK economy.

Louis Taylor, CEO of the British Business Bank, welcomed the new mandate, saying: “We welcome the Business Secretary’s Statement today and look forward to delivering against the Bank’s new mandate and strategic priorities.

“Building on the Bank’s scale, networks, and track record, we will mobilise institutional capital at scale by unlocking billions of pounds of domestic investment so the UK can capture the full commercial potential of its world-class breakthrough technology companies.

“The Bank will continue to increase the availability and diversity of finance for smaller businesses across the UK’s Nations and regions, and in addition, we will support our most promising scale-up businesses in the eight growth-driving sectors of the UK’s modern Industrial Strategy.”

The British Business Bank will publish its Five-Year Strategic Plan in the coming weeks, setting out how it intends to deliver on the Government’s new Statement of Strategic Priorities and help fuel the UK’s next phase of sustainable economic growth.