Sheffield-based British Business Bank, the UK government’s economic development bank, said its activities in 2024-25 are “expected to create 38,000 additional jobs and £8bn of gross value added.”

The bank reported a statutory profit before tax of £144 million and said its investment portfolio grew 19% to £4.7 billion, made up of £3.2 billion of equity and £1.5 billion of debt.

The bank said it performed strongly against targets set against its measured objectives in the last financial year.

It said it helped deliver for smaller businesses £385.8 million of debt commitments versus a target of £382.5 million, and £2.015 billion of guarantee commitments versus a target of £1.825 billion.

The bank reported £881.8 million of equity commitments versus a target of £895.7 million.

It reported £707.1 million of gross deployment outside of London versus a target of £649.8 million.

Alongside its Annual Report and Accounts, the British Business Bank published its second annual Impact Report.

“In 2024/25, the Bank supported a total of £6.8bn of finance for smaller businesses – £1.2bn of our public funding, £2.6bn of lending guaranteed and an additional £3.0bn of private capital crowded in,” said the bank.

“This enabled the Bank to support 24,000 businesses that hadn’t received Bank-supported funding before, as well as 4,000 that were first funded by the Bank before 2024/25. 84% of the businesses supported were outside of London.”