Business: Government Assistance

Mr. Syms
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what funds have been disbursed under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme to date.

Ms Rosie Winterton
Since the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) became operational in January 2009 banks have offered loans totalling nearly £850.7 million to 8,378 businesses. It is then up to each SME to decide how much of their offered loans they wish to utilise, i.e. ‘draw down’. To date, nearly 7,000 SMEs have drawn down £700.1 million of EFG-backed bank loans.