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British Business Bank agrees ENABLE Build guarantee with United Trust Bank to boost lending to smaller housebuilders across the UK

Press release 19 May 2021

United Trust Bank (UTB) has secured an ENABLE Build guarantee via the British Business Bank.

The new guarantee is the first to be issued under the ENABLE Build programme and will allow UTB to significantly increase the amount of development finance it provides to UK SME housebuilders. Over the lifetime of the £250m guarantee it is expected to help support the construction of over 2,700 units of new housing through the provision of more than £500m of funding to SME housebuilders.

The new guarantee follows UTB’s previous ENABLE Guarantee which to date has helped support the construction of over 1,800 units of new housing and provided more than £340m of funding to SME housebuilders.

The British Business Bank’s ENABLE Build is a variant of its ENABLE Guarantee programme and allows the Bank to increase its support to banks that wish to fund smaller housebuilders. As a sector, SME housebuilders and developers have traditionally struggled to access the finance they need.

The ENABLE Build programme is designed to encourage additional lending to smaller 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.

We are very pleased to announce our first ENABLE Build transaction, continuing support for smaller housebuilders to gain access to the finance they need. The ENABLE Build guarantee will help UTB provide the extra finance that smaller housebuilders require to allow them to grow, succeed and build, while diversifying the housing market and delivering thousands of homes and jobs in the process. - Reinald de Monchy Managing Director, Guarantee and Wholesale, British Business Bank
Many SME housebuilders rely on specialist lenders like UTB to access the funds they need to keep building and growing. I am delighted that we are once again collaborating with the British Business Bank to increase the availability of development finance. This ENABLE Build guarantee will help us to increase our ability to support the SME housebuilding sector. The previous guarantee contributed to the construction of around 1,800 new homes by SME housebuilders and ENABLE Build will allow UTB to go even further. The programme is another great example of the positive impact specialist banks and government agencies can have when they work together to achieve a common goal. - Harley Kagan Chief Executive Officer, United Trust Bank
Small housebuilders are vital to building the homes this country needs but too often struggle to access affordable finance. The ENABLE Build programme allows lenders to fund more SME housebuilders and get more shovels in the ground. - Housing Minister Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP

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 make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. 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 nearly £8bn of finance to almost 94,800 smaller businesses . Since March 2020, the British Business Bank has also launched four new Coronavirus business loan schemes, delivering more than £72bn of finance to over 1.5m businesses.

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.

ENABLE Build is administered by British Business Financial Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Business Bank plc.

About United Trust Bank

United Trust Bank (UTB) is an expanding UK specialist bank founded in 1955 providing a wide range of secured funding facilities for individuals and businesses and deposit accounts for individuals, businesses and charities.

The Bank has dedicated divisions providing development finance, bridging finance, structured finance, asset finance and mortgages and their in-depth knowledge combined with commercial awareness makes it the lender of choice for finance brokers, developers and individuals seeking a high quality, bespoke service and a reliable source of funding.

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