Businesses borrowed £79bn from government schemes to survive
Banks funnelled more than £79 billion in Governmentbacked loans to companies trying to stay afloat during the pandemic, new data shows.
The Chancellor said the Government has "delivered" on the support it promised to businesses.
Final data released yesterday shows that businesses borrowed another £4.2 billion in the final days of three loan schemes.
It means that in total, the Bounce Back Loan Scheme provided £47.36 billion to 1.56 million firms; the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) provided loans worth £26.39 to 110,000 companies, while a
scheme for larger businesses, CLBILS, provided £5.56 billion to 753 companies.
"We promised to stand by businesses at every stage of the pandemic and we have delivered on that promise," said Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
"I am proud of the extraordinary extent of support we've offered since March last year - we will continue to back businesses and protect people's jobs as we recover from coronavirus."
The Treasury delayed publishing the final data for the three loan schemes for months, because banks had until the end of May to process applications that had come in before the deadline at the end of March.
It had previously released monthly updates, with the last one in the middle of March just days before the schemes ended. It turned down a Freedom of Information request for the data.
A new Recovery Loan Scheme was launched after the three pandemic programmes finished.