Business loans in Scotland: lenders, public funds and the rules that differ

Business loans in Scotland come from the same products as anywhere in the UK: unsecured business loans, asset finance, invoice finance, commercial mortgages and revolving credit. Most UK-wide lenders consider Scottish businesses, and several high street and specialist lenders have their head office in Edinburgh. What is different is the public money on offer, which the next section covers, and the Scottish rules on property tax, rates and insolvency.

There are about 361,000 private sector businesses in Scotland, according to the Department for Business and Trade’s business population estimates for the start of 2025. In the Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2025, 71% of Scottish SME employers used external finance, against 70% in England and Wales.

To see what a loan might cost each month before you apply, use our business loan calculator. All funding is subject to status and lender criteria.

Scotland has three public routes to repayable finance that the rest of the UK does not share, plus the Growth Guarantee Scheme, which is UK-wide. We checked each one on 15 October 2026. You apply to these funds directly, not through a broker.

How do the Scottish Loan Scheme and a bank loan compare?

Scottish Enterprise says the Scottish Loan Scheme is for companies that have tried existing funders first, or have a good reason not to, and it excludes some sectors, including retail, restaurants, hotels and pubs, unless the business model is disruptive. Its interest rate depends on risk and security. A commercial lender may move faster and fund sectors the scheme leaves out, so many businesses compare both.

Business Gateway, the publicly funded advice service, offers free one-to-one advice across Scotland and can help you prepare a funding application. Grants are a separate subject: this page covers repayable finance, and grants usually fund only part of a project.

Yes. The Growth Guarantee Scheme is open across the UK through accredited lenders, and the British Business Bank’s list of accredited lenders can be filtered to show those labelled for Scotland. The government guarantee covers 70% of the facility for the lender; the borrower remains 100% liable for the debt. Our Growth Guarantee Scheme guide explains eligibility and terms.

Take-up in Scotland is well established. By 30 June 2026, Scottish businesses had drawn £217.73m across 1,387 facilities under the scheme and the last iteration of the Recovery Loan Scheme before it, according to the British Business Bank’s performance data. More UK-wide figures are in our UK SME finance statistics.

Four lenders with a Capzy profile have their head office in Edinburgh. The table lists their business loan products in alphabetical order, exactly as their profiles show them. It is not a ranking, and a profile does not mean a lender works with Capzy. TSB lends to existing TSB business account holders, and LendingCrowd lends to limited companies and LLPs. Compare the wider market on our lenders directory.

Three Scottish systems matter when you borrow: the tax on buying property, the rates on the premises you occupy and the insolvency regime if things go wrong.

Land and Buildings Transaction Tax

If a loan funds a commercial property purchase in Scotland, you pay Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) to Revenue Scotland, not Stamp Duty Land Tax. On non-residential property the rates are 0% up to £150,000, 1% from £150,001 to £250,000 and 5% above £250,000. Revenue Scotland’s own example is a £465,000 purchase, which carries £11,750 of LBTT. Budget for it alongside the deposit, because most lenders do not fund the tax. Our commercial mortgages guide covers deposits and loan-to-value.

Small Business Bonus Scheme

Scotland calls business rates non-domestic rates. Under the Small Business Bonus Scheme, a single property with a rateable value up to £12,000 pays no rates; relief tapers from 100% to 25% between £12,001 and £15,000, and from 25% to 0% between £15,001 and £20,000. You qualify only if the combined rateable value of all your premises is £35,000 or less and each one is £20,000 or less. You apply through your council, and it is free to apply. Lower rates mean lower fixed costs, which helps the affordability test a lender runs.

Insolvency in Scotland

Company insolvency is a little less common in Scotland than in England and Wales: the Insolvency Service reports 48.5 insolvencies per 10,000 companies in Scotland in the 12 months to August 2026, against 50.1 in England and Wales. For sole traders and partners, personal insolvency runs through the Accountant in Bankruptcy, Scotland’s insolvency service, under Scottish law. Bankruptcy is also called sequestration here, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy recorded 849 bankruptcies in April to June 2026.

Lenders apply the same tests in Scotland as elsewhere in the UK. Expect to be asked for:

• Recent business bank statements, usually the first thing a lender reads
• Filed accounts, and management accounts if the filed set is old
• The credit history of the business and its directors
• Existing borrowing and how it is being repaid
• What the money is for, with a quote or invoice for any asset
• Security on offer, and whether directors will give a personal guarantee

Public funds ask for more: the Scottish Loan Scheme wants two years of accounts and three years of forecasts, and the Investment Fund for Scotland’s fund managers may ask for a formal application or pitch deck.

Scotland’s economy leans on a few sectors, and each borrows for different reasons.

• Hospitality funding for kitchens, refits and the quiet months between tourist seasons.
• Construction funding for plant, vans and cash flow between stage payments.
• Manufacturing finance for machinery, raw materials and unpaid invoices, including food and drink production.
• Transport and logistics finance for trucks and trailers on long-distance and island routes.
• Farm and agricultural finance for machinery, livestock and land.

Capzy is a credit broker, not a lender, with its registered office in Belfast and clients across the UK, Scotland included. You tell us what the business needs, and we check which lenders on our panel consider Scottish businesses before introducing you to the ones that fit. The lender makes the decision, and the lender pays our commission. Funding is subject to status and lender criteria.

You can check your funding options online. That check is a soft search, which does not affect your credit score; a full application to a lender may involve a hard search. A broker cannot apply to the Investment Fund for Scotland, the Scottish Loan Scheme or the Scottish National Investment Bank for you, so if one of those suits you better, approach it directly.

Borrowing is the wrong option when the business cannot comfortably afford the repayments from normal trading. Interest and fees mean you repay more than you borrow.

• With asset finance, the lender can take back the asset if payments are missed.
• Short-term funding used for a long-term shortfall tends to need refinancing, at further cost.
• Several facilities taken at once can leave repayments the business cannot carry.
• If the pressure is a tax bill, ask HMRC about Time to Pay before you borrow.