News

British Business Bank ENABLE Build programme launches, offering further support for smaller housebuilder finance

  • ENABLE Build to make available up to £1bn of guarantees to support finance for smaller housebuilders

  • British Business Bank to deliver new programme alongside Homes England

British Business Bank’s ENABLE Build programme is now accepting applications from lenders. The programme, which was included in Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond MP’s Autumn Budget 2018, will make available up to £1bn of guarantees to support lending to smaller housebuilders, via specialist and high street banks.

Provided by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), ENABLE Build is a new variant of the Bank’s existing ENABLE Guarantee programme. This backing for ENABLE Build will allow the Bank to expand further its support to banks targeting the housebuilding sector. It follows three previous British Business Bank transactions that guarantee portfolios of lending to smaller housebuilders to promote further growth in the UK’s housing stock.

Reinald de Monchy, Managing Director, Guarantee and Wholesale, British Business Bank said: “The ENABLE Build programme will allow us to build on the ENABLE Guarantee’s success in supporting smaller housebuilders that have traditionally struggled to access the finance they need. Working alongside BEIS, MHCLG and Homes England to tackle both access to finance and the UK housing shortage, this programme is an excellent demonstration of how Government can work across departments to tackle a multifaceted issue.”

The Bank will leverage Homes England’s expertise of the housing market and residential real estate finance, working closely together to consider applications and deliver ENABLE Build successfully. This will help to address challenges faced by smaller housebuilders in accessing finance, delivering growth as part of the modern Industrial Strategy.

Homes England Chairman, Sir Edward Lister said: “We are pleased to be using our skills and resources to work alongside the British Business Bank to help create a more resilient and competitive housing market. The ENABLE Build Programme, which opens for applications today will help to address the financial barriers that prevent smaller builders from delivering more homes that the country needs.”

Secretary of State for Communities the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said: “This Government is getting on with the job as we work towards our target of delivering 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, so we can make the dream of home ownership a reality for a new generation.

“The ENABLE Build programme is now open for business, providing up to £1 billion of guarantees to ensure smaller house builders can continue their vital role in building the homes our country needs.”

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 banks. 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.

The scheme will consider applications from lenders where at least 80 per cent of the loans are to developments in England. Housing policy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter.

The British Business Bank has so far committed guarantees for live portfolios of over £800m under its ENABLE Guarantee programme (as at end October 2018). The Request for the Proposals for the ENABLE Build programme can be downloaded from the British Business Bank website.

ENDS

For further information please contact:

British Business Bank:

Scott Shearer
Senior Communications Manager
0203 772 1351 / 07770 704 761
Scott.Shearer@british-business-bank.co.uk

Suzanna Jebbitt
Communications Manager
07827 552 301
Suzanna.Jebbitt@british-business-bank.co.uk

MHP Communications, +44 20 3128 8728, bbb@mhpc.com

Homes England

Nosheen Haque, Communications Officer at Homes England on 0161 200 6131/ 07967 782 260 or email Nosheen.haque@homesengland.gov.uk

Notes to editors

About 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 programmes are supporting more than £5.9bn of finance to over 82,000 smaller businesses (as at end of September 2018).

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 Business Finance Guide (published in partnership with the ICAEW and a further 21 business and finance organisations) impartially sets out the range of finance options available to businesses at all stages – from start-ups to SMEs and growing mid-sized companies. Businesses can take the interactive journey at www.thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk.

• The new British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to high-growth businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. The new site also features case studies and learnings from real businesses to guide businesses through the process of applying for growth finance.

As the holding company of the group operating under the trading name of British Business Bank, British Business Bank plc is wholly owned by HM Government and is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank operates under its own brand name through a number of subsidiaries, one of which is authorised and regulated by the FCA. British Business Bank plc and its principal operating subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.

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

UK banks, and UK branches of foreign banks which lend, or intend to lend, primarily to viable England-based SME housebuilders can find out more about the programme, and express an interest in participating, by downloading the Request for Proposals from the British Business Bank website.

About Homes England:

• Homes England is the Government’s housing accelerator. We have the appetite, influence, expertise and resources to drive positive market change. By releasing more land to developers who want to make a difference, and investing in places of greatest need, to deliver new homes. Homes England welcomes partners who share their ambition to challenge the traditional norms and build better homes faster

• For more information visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/homes-england or follow us on Twitter @HomesEngland

About the Industrial Strategy

• The Industrial Strategy is committed to delivering the housing the country needs, that’s why this government announced a comprehensive policy package in November 2017 that will raise housing supply by the end of this Parliament to its highest level since the 1970s, on track to reach 300,000 per year.

• This will be achieved through £15.3bn of new financial support for housing over the next five years, taking total support to £44bn over the period, as well as planning reforms to make more land available for housing, and better use of underused land in our cities and towns.

• For more information, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/the-uks-industrial-strategy