Government support for businesses during the Coronavirus outbreak

The government are providing loans to businesses representing up to 25% of their annual turnover. The max loan available is £50k. Any business can apply so long as they fit the criteria, including limited companies and sole traders. The scheme is offered through a number high street lenders including Lloyds, Santander, HSBC and Barclays. The full list of providers can be found here.

The application process is relatively simple with the easiest place to start being your own business bank. Although each provider has sligtly different criteria - some are only working with exissting customers whilst others like HSBC don’t even require you to have a business account. Lenders also seem to be working to different timescales in terms of paying out, so it is worth taking a look at the current press prior to choosing a lender.

Key facts about bounce back loans;

• No repayments or interest for 12 months

• Full loan term 6 years at a rate of 2.5%

• No penalty for early payback

• Loans based on 25% of turn over from 1st Jan - 31st December 2019

• No personal guarantees required

The loans can be used for anything that will ‘provide an economic benefit to the business’, this can include cashflow, wages and rent. The amount of time it takes for the money to arrive depends on the lenders. Whilst some are delivering in 24 hours, others, like Barclays, seem to be experiencing issues. However as the whole purpose is to ‘enable businesses to access finance quickly’, so long as the banks can cope with demand, you should be able to count on a relatively quick turn around.

For full details about the scheme visit www.british-business-bank.co.uk