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British Business Bank announces increase in Tier 2 capital funding to £35m for specialist agricultural lender Oxbury

Press release 13 April 2026

  • Oxbury secures additional £10m Tier 2 capital facility from the British Business Bank
  • Transaction builds on a £25m Tier 2 facility agreed in 2022
  • The commitment strengthens the British Business Bank’s commitment to the UK’s food, farming and rural economy.

The British Business Bank has agreed a £10m Tier 2 capital facility with specialist agricultural bank Oxbury, further strengthening its capital position as it marks five years since commencing lending to the UK food and farming sector. This builds on a £25m facility provided in 2022, bringing the total funding to £35m.

The announcement reflects the British Business Bank’s commitment to small and medium-sized businesses, which are at the heart of the UK’s food, farming and agricultural economy.

Oxbury’s lending focuses on enabling smaller businesses within the food and farming sector to invest in land, infrastructure, automation, storage and working capital.

Since the first Tier 2 facility in 2022, Oxbury has grown substantially, building a large and diversified savings base that supports its expanding lending portfolio. Oxbury reports that it is now responsible for one in five new farm loans in the UK on a rolling 12-month basis and is approaching a 10% share of new agricultural lending nationally.

Oxbury’s regulatory capital structure combines a shareholder base with deep roots in the food and farming sector and long-term institutional funding, including Tier 2 facilities provided by the British Business Bank.

The British Business Bank’s Tier 2 capital note investments aim to be a catalyst for recipient banks as they grow, increasing the supply and availability of finance to small and medium-sized businesses across the UK.

Richard Bowen, Managing Director, Direct Financial Institution Solutions, British Business Bank, said:

We are delighted to increase our Tier 2 funding with Oxbury Bank and strengthen our relationship with them as a delivery partner. We have completed several transactions with Oxbury across our Banking business since 2022, which reflects the diversity of finance types we want to provide to the farming economy.

We hope this transaction enables Oxbury to support as many food and farming businesses as possible, and we look forward to seeing the growth this facility will bring to the farmers who access it.

Nick Evans, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Oxbury Bank, said:

We are extremely grateful to the British Business Bank for its continued support. They backed Oxbury in 2022, relatively soon after we began lending, and this additional facility reflects the progress made over the past five years.

Oxbury was founded to provide specialist finance to the UK’s food and farming sector. Today we are executing one in five new farm loans in the country and are approaching a 10% share of new agricultural lending. That growth has been underpinned by disciplined underwriting, strong credit performance and a shareholder base comprised overwhelmingly of farmers and landowners.

The combination of farmer-backed capital and government-backed support provides a strong platform for our continued, prudent growth.

Further Information

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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 drive economic growth by helping smaller businesses get the finance they need to start, scale and stay in the UK. 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 £23bn 1  of finance to almost 64,000 2  smaller businesses.

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. With the exception of BBB Investment Services Limited they are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority. BBB Investment Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.

The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK government, the British Business Bank plc, its subsidiaries or any other party of Oxbury Bank or its products or services.

About Oxbury Bank Plc

Oxbury was established by bankers, farmers, agricultural businesses, and technologists, combining the worlds of farming, financial services, and technology to create the UK's first and only fintech with a full banking license, focusing solely on serving customers in the agricultural sector.

Our mission is to transform the agriculture finance market and enable the sector’s drive towards a more productive and sustainable farming and food supply chain.

British farming and food production is undergoing an evolutionary transition, and farm businesses need more customised finance and data driven solutions to help facilitate the generational shifts necessary to enhance sustainability, provenance, and production standards across the farming and food supply chain.

Our tech team makes up one-third of our total headcount, reflecting our deep strengths in technology and digital banking. Oxbury Earth is our own purpose-built, cloud-native tech platform, delivering industry-leading digital banking, and payments solutions.

The Oxbury Earth platform also elevates data analysis for farmers by blending agronomic, financial, and environmental performance data and enables us to collaborate across the entire agrifood supply chain to enhance traceability and resilience.

Oxbury's co-founders are food and farming focussed. James Farrar (CEO) was the founding CEO of ClearBank, the UK’s first new, full-service clearing bank for over 250 years and former senior business banking executive at major UK banks. Nick Evans (MD) founded, ran, and successfully exited F4F (part of Adaptris), a software business with 2,500 customers in the global agricultural and animal health sectors. Both previously held senior roles in the UK banking industry.

The extended leadership team has many years of experience running some of the largest farm-supporting organisations and includes the former chairmen of NFU Mutual and AMC (Agriculture Mortgage Corporation).

Oxbury is a brand name of Oxbury Bank Plc which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (Financial Services Register number: 834822).

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