| Practice area: | Entrepreneurship & SMEs | Finance |
|---|---|
| Client: | British Business Bank |
| Published: | 14 June, 2022 |
| Keywords: | impact assessment quantitative analysis SMEs finance report |
In March 2020, in response to the global pandemic and corresponding wide-ranging business impacts and uncertainty, the government rapidly designed and deployed a series of three loan-guarantee schemes – the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS). These aimed to support smaller businesses across the UK which were experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow.
One year later, the British Business Bank commissioned London Economics and Ipsos to undertake a multi-year evaluation of the three schemes. The first phase of the evaluation provides an early assessment of whether the objectives of the schemes were satisfied, and their impact.
Key findings suggest that hundreds of thousands of jobs could have been lost without the £78bn of funding guaranteed under the schemes. The early impact assessment can be viewed at the above link.