British businesses have so far received almost £15bn of emergency financial aid through government-backed rescue loans, according to official figures.
Signalling a sharp increase in lending to firms during the pandemic, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, said that more than 304,000 companies have benefited from two separate government-backed loan schemes.
The figures show high street banks issued loans worth almost £8.4bn to about 268,000 firms during the first week of the government’s new 100% loan guarantee scheme.
The chancellor launched the bounce-back loans with full state guarantees after facing intense criticism for the slow take-up of its coronavirus business interruption loans scheme (CBILS), which came with 80% backing.
The figures showed businesses received more money from bounce-back loans in the first week than during the life of the CBILS programme, which was launched on 23 March and provides larger loans to bigger firms.
More bounce-back loans are being approved by high street banks – about 38,000 every day – than in total for CBILS after more than a month of the scheme’s operation.
High street banks have provided about £6.1bn to 35,919 businesses under the CBIL scheme so far.