Cambridge & Counties Bank, which specialises in lending to small businesses mostly in property related sectors, has secured an ENABLE Guarantee via the British Business Bank.

The Guarantee will allow the Leicester-based Bank, which is jointly owned by Trinity Hall, a college of the University of Cambridge, and the Cambridgeshire Local Government Pension Fund, to offer significantly more funding to smaller businesses. The ENABLE Guarantee programme is a UK government-backed portfolio guarantee which is designed to encourage additional lending to smaller businesses.  The programme is open to all UK banks and UK branches of foreign banks which lend, or intend to lend, to viable small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the UK.

Cambridge & Counties Bank focuses on lending to small firms in the North, Scotland, the Midlands, East Anglia, the South West and Wales. Small businesses that have benefited from funding from Cambridge & Counties Bank include Kemble Business Parks LLP, who utilised funding to assist in its purchase of Loch Lomond Shores shopping and leisure development, and also entrepreneurs Keith and Denice Punler who secured funding for the development of grade-B listed Castle Toward.

Reinald de Monchy, MD for Guarantee & Wholesale Solutions at British Business Bank, said: “Two of the British Business Bank’s objectives are to increase the diversity of funding suppliers for smaller businesses, and to reduce regional imbalances in access to finance across the UK.

“We therefore welcome this new ENABLE Guarantee facility with Cambridge & Counties Bank – a relatively new entrant to the market with a regional focus – which will help more UK smaller businesses get the funding they need to grow and succeed.”

Will German, Chief Risk Officer of Cambridge & Counties Bank, said: “We are delighted to be working with the British Business Bank, which shares our objective of boosting the UK economy by helping to finance smaller businesses.

“This transaction is yet another significant milestone in our history as we move towards our sixth birthday. The ENABLE guarantee allows us to extend our customer centric approach, focussing on the professional and corporate property sectors.”