MORE than 1,000 businesses in Scotland have been offered loans worth almost £230 million through a Covid recovery scheme.

The British Business Bank, the UK government’s economic development bank, said accredited lenders had offered £229.7m to 1,035 smaller businesses in Scotland through the Recovery Loan Scheme.

This was launched by the UK government in April 2021 to help businesses recover and grow after the coronavirus pandemic.

Of the loans offered, 962 businesses in Scotland drew down £205.7m.

The total funding offered through the scheme in Scotland equates to 5 per cent of the UK total, and is broadly in line with the relative size – 6% – of Scotland’s business population, the British Business Bank said.

Across the UK, a total of £4.51bn of lending had been offered to 18,693 businesses through the scheme.

Of this, £3.83bn was drawn down by 17,295 businesses, based on data as at 12 July 2022.

Susan Nightingale, UK network director for Scotland at the British Business Bank said the loans taken out by businesses in Scotland would “better position them to confront both the challenges and opportunities that are ahead."

The Recovery Loan Scheme was originally scheduled to run until 31 December 2021, but was extended by six months to 30 June 2022 in the 2021 Autumn Budget.

A new successor scheme to the Recovery Loan Scheme has been announced by the UK government and will open for applications in August 2022.

The British Business Bank works with partners including high street banks to help small businesses access finance. As of March 2021, the bank said its programmes had helped almost 95,000 smaller businesses access more than £8.5bn of finance.

A new successor scheme to the Recovery Loan Scheme has been announced by the UK government and will open for applications in August 2022.