Supporting British businesses
How we're supporting British businesses, from entrepreneurs to SMEs impacted by coronavirus.
In January 2020 we reiterated our pledge to support British business by once again committing to lend up to £18bn in 2020.
As the year unfolded and the impact of coronavirus emerged, we committed to support businesses with our own £2bn Covid fund, which saw us grant more than 56,000 capital repayment holidays and overdraft extensions to businesses in 2020.
£31 billion
total lending to businesses in 2020 and throughout the pandemic
>£13bn
of CBILS and BBLS provided
to help our clients through
the impact of coronavirus to date
As a result, we lent £31bn in total to businesses in 2020 and throughout the pandemic.
We have been an active supporter of the government schemes to help businesses through any interruptions they faced, providing additional finance facilities to those businesses who needed them. This included providing support to over 350,000 businesses affected by coronavirus interruption, lending them nearly £13bn to date through the various Government Lending Schemes and the new Recovery Loan Scheme.
As lockdown restrictions began to ease in 2021 we also resumed our support for start-up businesses and have helped over 48,000 businesses to start-up in the first half of the year.
350,000
businesses supported via government lending schemes to date
>48,000
businesses helped to start up in 2021
£1.7bn
new public bond issuance in social housing, of which over £1.2bn is sustainability linked
To further support our business customers adapt, recover and grow we have provided them with ongoing help and guidance.
At the beginning of 2021 we launched the Business Recovery Hub which provides support to businesses if they want to improve cash flow, obtain guidance on delaying their payments or if they want to make changes to their business.
We also launched our Pay As You Grow support pages for those businesses which took a Bounce Back Loan, including a simple-to-use calculator which enables them to make an informed decision on the option they wish to take. The process is completely digital which means they are able to make a decision and instruct the Bank at their own pace and at a time that is convenient to them.
As well as providing support and guidance to our business customers, we have also provided new tools to our Relationship Managers. This includes the Financial Wellbeing Tool, which utilises data to help them identify business customers who may need additional support earlier than was previously possible.
Lockdown learnings
For the next phase of our ‘By the side of business’ campaign we showcased a number of our customers and the business lessons they learned during lockdown to inspire businesses to adapt and develop through recovery and beyond.
In partnership with the national press we shared their experiences and we held live events on topics such as financial wellbeing, sustainability, digital innovation and bouncing back from the pandemic.
Discover businesses we've helped by sector
Supporting health care
The Health Care Sector has shown great resilience in 2021 and dentistry and pharmacy have been particularly active, with high volumes of transactions seen. This has been driven by pent up demand due to the pandemic. At the same time we have seen a greater interest in GPs considering new, purpose-built premises, which we have not seen for some time.
In the first half of 2021 we have supported the sector with £165m of new funding and forecast similar funding in the second half of the year.
Supporting manufacturing
We have continued our £1m a year sponsorship of the Lloyds Bank Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in the Midlands to support the training and upskilling of apprentices and engineers in the sector, supporting the biggest issue manufacturers tell us they face into, skills shortage.
Through our sponsorship we have now supported the training & upskilling of over 2000 apprentices, graduates & engineers with more than 300 in the first half of 2021 alone and remain on track to support around 3500 by the end of 2024.
Supporting trade
We shone a light on the value international trade provides and released ‘A New World for Global British Business’ report which investigated trade diversion by Lloyds Bank and Aston Business school.
The report showed businesses are actively looking at new export markets, with:
- 18% of exporters having already changed trading partners to divert business outside the EU.
- £50bn of exports have been diverted to non-EU countries since the Brexit referendum.
- One third of exporters still plan to trade with new markets.
Supporting Black-led businesses
We have continued to work with our Black Business Advisory Committee, chaired by Claudine Reid MBE, to help understand and overcome the barriers faced by Black entrepreneurs.
We have continued to actively support Black communities by hosting 2 national community conversations attended by over 300 Black business owners, and several regional networking events.
In partnership with Black Business Network and Savanta, we have carried out a research programme where we gathered feedback from over 800 Black students, employees, and business owners.
In partnership with Foundervine we have Supported 20 Black founders with an immersive 4-week program, aimed at getting ambitious early-stage businesses investment-ready.
Supporting sustainable businesses
In the first half of 2021, we have provided £1.3bn of green finance, through our Clean Growth Finance Initiative, Commercial Real Estate Green Finance, Renewable Energy Financing and Green/ESG Bond facilitation. This increased our total green finance to over £8.6bn since 2016.
In addition, we have supported clients with over £3bn of Sustainability Linked Loans since 2017.
Since the launch of our ambition in 2016, we have raised c£3.5bn of funding in green and sustainable bonds for our clients.
Between 2018-2020, we committed to supporting renewable energy transactions to power the equivalent of 10.1 million homes.
Supporting housing
Through our support in H1 2021 725 new homes were built through The Housing Growth Partnership by SMEs. In H1 the Bank has led every new public bond issuance in Social Housing, raising £1.7bn of which over £1.2bn is Sustainability linked. Via our Green Buildings Tool we have assessed the EPC credentials of 240.000 social homes throughout the UK to support the sector with decarbonisation.
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