18 August 2020

Government lends more than £52bn to UK firms

18 August 2020

The Government has handed out more than £52 billion in coronavirus support to UK firms impacted by the pandemic.

The majority of this financial support has been paid out through the Bounce Back Loan scheme, which can provide small companies with 100% state-backed loans worth up to £50,000.

It said that £35.47 billion was approved to be paid to 1,174,854 small UK companies, in the Treasury’s latest weekly update.

More than 60,000 slightly larger firms have also now had loans approved by the state.

The Treasury said it has now approved £13.68 billion of financial support for 60,409 companies through the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS).

Large companies, those with over £45 million in annual turnover, have also had more loans approved through the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS).

The Treasury said it has now approved 516 loans worth £3.5 billion through the CLBILS programme.

It has also now paid out £588.3 million in support to high-growth companies through the Future Fund support scheme.

Throughout the pandemic, the Government has also continued to provide financial support for workers through the furlough scheme.

HMRC said £34.7 billion has been paid out to 9.6 million workers across 1.2 million different employers since the start of the pandemic.

It also paid out £7.8 billion to workers through the first tranche of the self-employment income support scheme.

Applications for the second round of grants for the scheme were opened on Monday, to cover the three months to October.

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