Philip Hammond announced that the government-owned bank would be receiving up to an additional £200m investment if no future relationship with the European Investment Bank was in place when the UK leaves the European Union next year.

The additional investment will allow the BBB to continue to provide funding for venture capital and growth finance in 2019/20.

The chancellor of the exchequer also confirmed the government’s commitment to funding the Start-Up Loans programme until 2021. 

Meanwhile, Hammond pledged that the government would make available up to £1bn of guarantee support via specialist and high street lenders to small housebuilders to be deployed through a variant of the BBB’s ENABLE Guarantee programme. 

“This will allow for the continued expansion of the programme in the sector and will promote further growth in the UK housing stock,” said Keith Morgan, chief executive at the BBB (pictured above).

“We will work closely with MHCLG and Homes England on the delivery of this initiative.”

The chancellor also referred to the BBB’s UK network in the Budget and Keith felt this underlined the importance of the initiative.

“The new UK network is being developed by the bank across each of the English regions and the three devolved administrations – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – to identify and help to reduce imbalances in access to finance for smaller businesses across the UK.”

Keith also confirmed that the bank would be chairing a feasibility study to explore options for facilitating pooled investment in patient capital by large defined contribution pension schemes.

“This would be another important source of capital and would bolster other efforts to make more patient capital available for innovative companies across the UK led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build successful, world-class businesses.

“We will be working closely with HM Treasury, BEIS and UKGI to implement the measures announced in the Autumn Budget over the months ahead.”