Government-backed finance
Growth Guarantee Scheme for UK Businesses
Exploring finance to invest in or grow your business? The Growth Guarantee Scheme helps accredited lenders provide finance to smaller UK businesses. Tell Wize Finance what you need, and our team will review your enquiry and discuss potential funding routes.
Wize Finance isn’t an accredited Growth Guarantee Scheme lender and isn’t appointed by the British Business Bank or the government. An accredited lender provides the finance and decides whether the scheme is used.
For Start Up Loans and the other current schemes, see our Government Business Loans guide.
Share the amount and what it's for, and the team reviews your enquiry and discusses your options.
A Wize Finance enquiry isn’t an application to the scheme. Where appropriate, Wize Finance can connect you with a suitable funding provider.
Scheme details last checked 26 October 2026
What the Growth Guarantee Scheme is
The Growth Guarantee Scheme helps smaller UK businesses get finance to invest and grow. It replaced the Recovery Loan Scheme and opened through accredited lenders on 1 July 2024. The British Business Bank administers it on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business and Trade.
Looking at other government-backed schemes?
This page covers the Growth Guarantee Scheme only. For Start Up Loans, regional investment funds and schemes that have closed, read our guide to Government Business Loans.
Where the scheme is available
Only through lenders on the British Business Bank’s accredited list. See the accredited lenders ↗
How the Growth Guarantee Scheme works
The scheme changes the lender’s position, not yours. Here’s how the pieces fit together.
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Stage 1: You approach an accredited lender
- What happens
- You apply to a lender on the British Business Bank’s accredited list. Not every lender offers every type of finance, and amounts vary by lender.
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Stage 2: The lender decides
- What happens
- The lender runs its standard credit and fraud checks and decides whether to lend, how much, on what terms and whether the scheme is used. If one lender declines, you can approach others.
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Stage 3: The guarantee goes to the lender
- What happens
- The lender gets a 70% government-backed guarantee on the outstanding balance after its normal recovery process.
Your business remains 100% liable for the debt. The guarantee protects the lender if the finance isn’t repaid; it doesn’t reduce what your business owes.
What the scheme can support
Depending on the lender, the scheme can back these types of finance. Not every lender offers every type.
- term loans
- overdrafts
- asset finance
- invoice finance
- asset-based lending.
How much and for how long
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Generally up to £2 million per business group. The limit is £1 million for businesses in scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol, or lower for those in some sectors, such as agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture.
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Minimums vary: from £1,000 for asset finance, invoice finance and asset-based lending, and from £25,001 for term loans and overdrafts.
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Term loans and asset finance from three months up to six years. Overdrafts, invoice finance and asset-based lending from three months up to three years.
The lender decides how much it offers and on what terms, within the scheme limits.
Announced 12 July 2026, not yet in force at our last check: terms of up to ten years for term loans and asset finance, and a turnover limit rising from £45 million to £54 million. The British Business Bank says it’s working with lenders to put these in place, and the scheme continues on its existing terms in the meantime.
Tell us what you need.
We'll review your circumstances and discuss the options with you.
Who the scheme may be relevant to
The British Business Bank says the scheme is for businesses that:
- carry out trading activity in the UK
- have a turnover of up to £45 million (on a group basis where it applies)
- generate more than half their income from trading (registered charities and further education establishments are exempt from this test)
- have a borrowing proposal the lender considers viable
- aren’t a business in difficulty, including being in relevant insolvency proceedings.
Meeting these criteria doesn’t mean a lender will offer finance, or that it will use the scheme.
Who’s excluded: banks and building societies, insurers and reinsurers (insurance brokers aren’t excluded), public-sector bodies, state-funded primary and secondary schools, and certain mining and extraction activities, including coal, lignite, crude petroleum and natural gas.
Earlier support and subsidy limits
Scheme support counts as a subsidy, and there’s a limit on the subsidy a business and its wider group can receive over a rolling three-year period. You’ll be asked to confirm in writing that the facility won’t take you over it. Borrowing under CBILS, CLBILS, Bounce Back Loans or the Recovery Loan Scheme doesn’t bar you, but it may reduce the maximum you can access.
Personal guarantees and your home
A lender may ask for a personal guarantee at its discretion. Under the scheme, though, it can’t take your main home (principal private residence) as security. For how guarantees and security work more generally, see Business loans without a personal guarantee.
What a lender may ask for
You’ll need to show the business can afford the repayments. Lenders commonly ask for things like management accounts, historic accounts, a business plan, details of assets and details of any earlier subsidies.
GGS-backed finance or ordinary commercial finance?
GGS-backed and ordinary commercial finance compared
GGS-backed finance
- Who provides it
- An accredited lender
- Who the guarantee protects
- The lender, through a government-backed guarantee on part of its loss
- Who repays
- Your business, in full
- Who sets rates, fees and terms
- The lender
- Extra rules
- Scheme rules, such as turnover, trading and subsidy limits
- Your main home as security
- Can’t be taken under the scheme
Ordinary commercial finance
- Who provides it
- A lender or finance provider
- Who the guarantee protects
- No government guarantee
- Who repays
- Your business, in full
- Who sets rates, fees and terms
- The lender or provider
- Extra rules
- The provider’s own criteria
- Your main home as security
- Depends on the lender and the agreement
The guarantee is to the lender, not to you.
A GGS-backed facility is still the lender’s product, on the lender’s terms. Pricing is set by each lender and reflects the guarantee and the fee the lender pays for it. The scheme may help where a lender wouldn’t otherwise lend, but it doesn’t change who repays. If your business sits outside the scheme rules, ordinary commercial finance may still be an option.
How Wize Finance can help
You don’t need to know which lender — or even which type of finance — is right before you enquire. Tell us what you’re trying to achieve, and Wize Finance will review your circumstances, discuss the options with you and, where appropriate, connect you with a suitable funding provider.
Wize Finance isn’t an accredited Growth Guarantee Scheme lender or an official scheme partner, and isn’t appointed by the British Business Bank or the government. Eligibility, approval and whether the scheme is used are for the lender to decide.
After you submit your details, the Wize Finance team reviews your enquiry and contacts you to discuss your funding needs and next steps. Where appropriate, your details can then be shared with a suitable funding provider.
Growth Guarantee Scheme: common questions
What is the Growth Guarantee Scheme?
A government-backed scheme that helps smaller UK businesses get finance from accredited lenders. The government gives the lender a guarantee on part of the finance; it doesn’t lend the money itself.
Is the Growth Guarantee Scheme still open?
At our last check on 26 October 2026, the British Business Bank listed the scheme as open for applications through its accredited lenders.
Is my business still liable if the finance is government-backed?
Yes. The guarantee goes to the lender, and your business remains 100% liable for the debt.
Will I need a personal guarantee for a Growth Guarantee Scheme facility?
You might. A lender can ask for one at its discretion, but it can’t take your main home (principal private residence) as security under the scheme.
Is Wize Finance an accredited Growth Guarantee Scheme lender?
No. Wize Finance isn’t an accredited lender and isn’t appointed by the British Business Bank or the government. It can help your business explore funding and, where appropriate, connect it with a suitable funding provider. Whether a facility is backed by the scheme is for the lender to decide.
Can I apply for the Growth Guarantee Scheme through Wize Finance?
A Wize Finance enquiry is not an application to the scheme. Where appropriate, Wize Finance can connect you with a suitable funding provider; the accredited lender decides whether the Growth Guarantee Scheme is used. You can also approach a lender on the British Business Bank’s accredited list directly.
Exploring funding for your business?
Start a Wize Finance enquiry to talk through what you need. This is an enquiry to Wize Finance, not an application to the Growth Guarantee Scheme. Where appropriate, Wize Finance can connect you with a suitable funding provider. You can also go directly to a lender on the British Business Bank’s accredited list ↗.
Scheme details checked against the British Business Bank on 26 October 2026. Schemes can change at short notice. Always confirm on the official scheme page ↗ before you apply.