New figures released by the British Business Bank show that over £65m has been loaned to businesses in the Borders, as part of UK Government schemes to help with the pandemic.
89 Borders businesses are making use of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), with a value of around £15.3m. CBILS provides a government backed guarantee for loan repayments. Businesses can apply for loans up to £5m.
1784 businesses are using the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), worth over £50m in support in the Borders. This scheme is designed to support smaller businesses with loans of between £2,000 and £50,000, being repaid over six years. For this scheme there are no repayments needed during the first twelve months.
For both schemes, the first twelve months of interest is covered by the UK Government.
Across Scotland, the schemes have supported over 90,000 businesses to the tune of £2.5bn in UK Government backed loans.
The UK Government has invested more than £280 billion throughout the pandemic to protect millions of jobs and businesses, including extending the self-employed and furlough schemes through to April to give businesses certainty over the coming months.
John Lamont MP said:
“The package of business support from the UK Government during coronavirus has been a real lifeline.
“These new figures speak for themselves, with over £65m in support just from these two schemes alone in the Borders. The number of businesses applying show just how necessary they are.
“This is on top of the full range of business support packages including the furlough scheme, the self employed income scheme and VAT cuts for the hospitality industry.
“The UK Government has also provided the Scottish Government with £8.6 billion to allow them to help businesses more directly. It is vital this gets out to those who need it as quickly as possible.”
Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, added:
“Throughout this crisis, we have provided more than £280billion of support to protect jobs and livelihoods up and down the country.
“We are committed to continuing to ensure jobs are protected and opportunity is created.”
