Start Up Loans, part of the British Business Bank, revealed today that it has delivered more than £140 million of loans to UK entrepreneurs aged 50+ since its inception in 2012. The programme has supported 13,422 loans, at an average of £10,427 per loan.
Of these loans, more than £14.78 million has gone to business owners over the age of 50 in the south west. So far, 1,474 loans have been issued to businesses, with an average loan amount of £10,028.
By UK region, the south west had the second highest number of loans by value outside London and the south east, with Devon, Somerset and Cornwall weighing in as the top three counties for 50+ entrepreneurship in the region, by number of loans.
Start Up Loans says it has delivered more than £13 million worth of loans nationally to the over 50s in the financial year running 1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024. This represents a significant contribution to national efforts to encourage people aged 50+ back into work through a variety of initiatives designed to help stimulate economic growth.
Nationally, almost half (£64m) has been delivered since the first Covid-19 lockdown, with 4,664 issued since April 2020 with a value of £63,928,454, reflecting an average loan of £13,707 per business. That’s an average increase of more than £2,600 compared to the four year period before Covid-19, reflecting the difficult operating conditions businesses have been facing.
In the south west, over £7 million has been delivered since the first Covid-19 lockdown, providing a total of 532 loans. In this period, the average loan value per business was £13,246 – an increase of more than £3,000 compared to the four-year period before Covid-19.
