Growth Guarantee Scheme: how it works, limits and eligibility

The Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS) is a government scheme that gives an accredited lender a 70% guarantee on a loan or other facility it provides to a smaller UK business. It is the successor to the Recovery Loan Scheme and launched with accredited lenders on 1 July 2024. The British Business Bank administers it on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business and Trade.

The scheme is open for applications. It was first announced to run to 31 March 2026, and the 2025 Spending Review extended it until 31 March 2030. A GGS-backed facility can be used for any legitimate business purpose, including managing cash flow and investment. It is one of several government-backed business loans and funds open today.

The scheme in numbers

The British Business Bank reports the scheme together with the third iteration of the Recovery Loan Scheme, which opened on 1 August 2022. As at 30 June 2026, the two had supported 22,947 facilities worth £3.96bn, of which £2.74bn went to businesses outside London and the South East. Term loans made up £2,917.17m of that across 15,920 facilities, and asset finance £914.50m across 6,477. Lenders had settled 1,496 claims on the guarantee worth £89.40m, which is 2.26% of the value drawn. The figures were published on 18 August 2026 and are updated quarterly.

The guarantee is a promise from the government to the lender, not to you: if you default, the lender can claim 70% of the outstanding balance after it has completed its normal recovery process. Step by step:

1. You apply to an accredited lender, either directly or through a broker. Only accredited lenders can provide a GGS-backed facility.
2. The lender assesses you as it would any borrower. It runs its own credit and affordability checks and must consider that you have a viable business proposition.
3. The lender decides whether to use the scheme. GGS-backed facilities are provided at the lender’s discretion, and the British Business Bank says that if a lender can offer a commercial loan on better terms, it will do so.
4. You confirm your subsidy position in writing. The guarantee counts as a subsidy to your business, and the lender tells you its value.
5. You repay the facility under your agreement with the lender, in full, with interest and any fees.
6. If you default, the lender follows its normal recovery process, which can include enforcing security and calling on any personal guarantee. Only then can it claim 70% of what is still outstanding from the government.

You can borrow up to £2m per business group under the scheme, or up to £1m per business group if you are in scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Term loans and asset finance run from three months to six years; other products run to three years. These are the terms in force as of October 2026.

The scheme covers five types of finance. Not all lenders offer all of them.

A UK business with turnover of up to £45m can apply, provided it trades in the UK, is viable in the lender’s view and is not a business in difficulty. The scheme’s published criteria are:

• Turnover: up to £45m, measured across the group if you are part of one.
• UK trading: you carry out trading activity in the UK and, for most businesses, generate more than 50% of income from trading. Charities and further education colleges are exempt from the 50% test.
• Viability: the lender must consider that you have a viable business proposition.
• Not in difficulty: you must not be a business in difficulty, which includes being in relevant insolvency proceedings.
• Subsidy headroom: you confirm in writing that the facility will not take you over the subsidy limit.

Sole traders, companies, limited partnerships, LLPs, co-operatives and community benefit societies can all apply. Start-ups are eligible at the lender’s discretion.

Who cannot apply

• Banks, building societies and insurance companies. Insurance brokers are eligible.
• Public-sector bodies and state-funded primary and secondary schools.
• Individuals, other than sole traders and partners.

The facility must not be used for certain export-related activities, such as fulfilling a direct export order. You self-certify this when you apply.

A lender can ask for a personal guarantee on a GGS facility of any size, but it cannot take your main home as security. Personal guarantees are taken at the lender’s discretion, in line with its normal commercial lending practices. The scheme’s public pages state no cap on what a lender can recover under one, so read the guarantee you are asked to sign.

Interest and fees are set by each lender and vary with the proposal. The lender’s pricing takes into account the benefit of the government guarantee and the fee the lender pays for it, and lenders are required to pass the economic benefit of the guarantee on to the business after accounting for their costs in using the scheme. The scheme’s public pages do not set an interest rate.

The British Business Bank says it limits lenders’ upfront fees, including broker fees, to a maximum of 5%. It also says it does not regulate the broker market, that brokers may charge fees outside their arrangements with lenders, and that you should understand any fees before you proceed. Capzy is paid by the lender.

A GGS facility counts as a subsidy. Outside the scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the limit is £315,000 across the current UK fiscal year, 1 April to 31 March, and the two preceding fiscal years. For general sectors in scope of the Protocol, the limit is £255,000 (€300,000) across the three years before the facility’s offer date.

Primary production agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture in scope of the Protocol have lower subsidy limits and a different lookback: the current fiscal year of the business or group and its two preceding fiscal years. Ask the lender to confirm the limit and period for your sector.

The subsidy is not the amount you borrow. It is a calculated value of the benefit you receive from the guarantee, and your lender tells you the figure. You declare earlier subsidies and confirm in writing that the new facility keeps you within the limit.

Holding one of these loans does not bar you from the scheme. The British Business Bank says such borrowers are not prevented from accessing GGS, but that borrowing under the earlier schemes may reduce the maximum amount you are eligible for. Our post on applying for GGS with an existing Covid loan works through each case. If you still hold one, see what applies to a Bounce Back Loan or to the Recovery Loan Scheme and CBILS.

A GGS loan is a commercial loan with a government guarantee to the lender behind it; a standard business loan has no guarantee. For you, the debt is the same. The difference is in who can provide it, the limits and the paperwork.

The scheme is not the right route for every business. You cannot choose it for yourself: the lender decides. A business that qualifies for a commercial loan on better terms will be offered that instead. A business already in difficulty is excluded. And the guarantee changes nothing about affordability: if the repayments would strain your cash flow, borrowing less or not borrowing is the better answer.

On 12 July 2026 the Chancellor announced an expansion of the scheme, but the changes are announced only: they are not in force as of October 2026, and no start date has been published.

• Longer terms: the maximum term would rise from six to 10 years. The Treasury describes this as applying to loans of up to £1.1m; the British Business Bank refers to term loans and asset finance. The final scope has not been published.
• Higher turnover limit: eligibility would rise from £45m to £54m of annual turnover.
• More lending: the British Business Bank describes a further £6.5bn of market lending over the next four years, estimated to help 33,000 businesses.

A business in scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol can borrow up to £1m per business group under the scheme, with lower facility limits of £285,000 for primary production agriculture and £170,000 for primary production aquaculture and fisheries. These facilities fall under EU de minimis rules. The general-sector subsidy ceiling is €300,000 (£255,000) over the three years before the offer; primary production agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture have lower subsidy ceilings and use the business’s or group’s current and two preceding fiscal years.

Scope is tested for each applicant with two short questions about the business’s links to Northern Ireland, so an address alone does not settle it. The Protocol has since been amended by the Windsor Framework, and the scheme’s references to it should be read accordingly. As at 30 June 2026, 269 facilities worth £55.89m had been drawn in Northern Ireland under the scheme and its predecessor. Capzy’s registered office is in Belfast; our guide to business loans in Northern Ireland covers the local funds and lenders alongside the scheme.

You apply to an accredited lender, not to the government or the British Business Bank. The Bank publishes the list of accredited lenders, which showed more than 50 as of October 2026 and can be filtered by product and by nation or region. You can approach a lender on that list yourself; you do not need a broker.

What Capzy does

Capzy is a credit broker, not a lender, and does not provide GGS facilities. We take your details once, show you which finance types and business lenders fit your business, and introduce you to lenders that may suit, subject to status and lender criteria. The lender then decides whether to lend and whether to use the scheme for your facility. You can check your funding options without affecting your credit score; a full application to a lender may involve a hard search.

If you are declined

A decline is one lender’s decision, not the scheme’s. Your options include:

• Another accredited lender, since each applies its own credit policy and offers different products.
• Finance outside the scheme. Lender-panel figures, not offers: term loans of £25k–£500k over 3–60 months, revenue finance repaid as a share of sales, asset finance, invoice finance and revolving credit.
• A Start Up Loan if you have been trading for less than five years. The British Business Bank points early-stage businesses to loans of £500 to £25,000 at a fixed 7.5% a year.
• A smaller amount or a different product, if affordability was the reason.