Growth Guarantee Scheme

The Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS), administered by the British Business Bank on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, is the successor to the Recovery Loan Scheme and is designed to support access to finance for UK smaller businesses looking to invest and grow. It launched with accredited lenders on 1 July 2024 and supports a range of products including term loans, overdrafts, asset finance, invoice finance and asset-based lending. The scheme can generally support facility sizes up to £2m per business group (or up to £1m for borrowers in scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol, lower for certain sectors such as agriculture and fisheries), backed by a 70% government guarantee to the lender; the borrower remains 100% liable for the debt. Term loans and asset finance run from three months to six years; overdrafts, invoice finance and asset-based lending run from three months to three years. Finance can be used for any legitimate business purpose, including cashflow management and investment, provided the business can afford additional debt. Lending decisions, pricing and personal guarantee requirements are at the discretion of accredited lenders, who apply standard credit and fraud checks. Support received counts as a subsidy subject to a rolling three-year cap.

Open to smaller UK businesses with turnover of up to £45m on a group basis (recently increased eligibility to £54m announced); the borrower must be trading in the UK and, for most businesses, generate more than 50% of income from trading activity, and must pass the lender's viability test and standard credit and fraud checks.