Hundreds of thousands of jobs saved by loans says report

Hundreds of thousands of jobs could have been lost during the COVID-19 pandemic without the Government’s intervention with business loans.

A report commissioned by the British Business Bank shows that without the £78 billion of funding via the three loan-guarantee schemes, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), businesses would have closed.

Loans were a vital lifeline

Chris Wilford, director of financial services policy at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said: “The Covid Loan Schemes made a critical difference to businesses of all sizes across every region and nation of the UK. Without this vital lifeline, hundreds of thousands of otherwise viable businesses, jobs and livelihoods would have been lost.”

The first in a series of reports evaluating the government’s Covid-19 emergency loan schemes shows that in March 2020, in response to the global pandemic, the Government quickly delivered the financial packages to support smaller businesses across the UK.

The  British Business Bank commissioned London Economics and Ipsos to undertake an extended evaluation of the three schemes.

The first phase provides key findings on the impact of the schemes and will be refined and updated as more data becomes available.

It shows:

• It is estimated that without the schemes, an additional 10 per cent to 34 per cent of BBLS borrowers (146,000 to 505,000 businesses) and an additional seven per cent to 28 per cent of CBILS/CLBILS borrowers (5,000 to 21,000 businesses) could have permanently ceased trading in 2020.
• It is also estimated that 0.5 million to 2.9 million jobs could have been lost without the schemes.
• Fund were mostly used as working capital and to provide financial security.

The Covid-19 loan guarantee schemes met their primary objectives of unlocking credit for businesses at scale and speed and resulted in £78 billion in guaranteed loan facilities, reaching just over a quarter of smaller businesses in the UK.

Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO, of British Business Bank, said: “The Covid-19 emergency loan schemes were designed to address a drastically altered economic landscape for smaller businesses as lockdowns took effect.

“This evaluation is the first indication of just how important those schemes were in saving livelihoods, businesses and hundreds of thousands of jobs, and we are proud to have played a vital role in their delivery.”

If you have any problems as a result of taking part in these schemes, we can help. Please contact our expert team today.