Interim Evaluation of the ENABLE Programmes: ENABLE Guarantee (and ENABLE Build) (British Business Bank)

Summary

• As of March 2025, ENABLE Guarantee and ENABLE Build supported over £5bn of finance across more than 3,000 SMEs with 12 live delivery partners.p.4
• As of year-end 2023/24, the British Business Bank held £1,389 million under live commitment for ENABLE Guarantee and £600 million for ENABLE Build.p.44
• The bank portfolio guarantee structure provides direct government coverage for 75% of credit losses exceeding a predetermined first loss retention, achieving near-zero risk weights.p.18

Key insights

1. Econometric event study modelling found no statistically significant net additional impact on SME gross lending, constrained by a small number of delivery partners and imperfect counterfactual data.p.8
2. All participating delivery partners interviewed confirmed that capital headroom created by ENABLE Guarantee enabled them to increase total lending to SMEs.p.9
3. In FY2022-23, programme income from fees and interest payments reached six to seven times the operational cost, with zero guarantee calls or portfolio losses incurred.p.51
4. Approval and implementation timescales for guarantee transactions ranged from 3 months to between 18 and 24 months, with multi-departmental government approvals identified as a main source of friction.p.40
5. In 2023, the programme scope expanded to include seeded transactions, permitting guarantees on existing loan portfolios rather than strictly newly originated facilities.p.18
6. Qualitative value-for-money evaluation under the National Audit Office 3 'E's framework rated the programme's economy as Good, efficiency as Excellent, and effectiveness as Good.p.10