Female-founded businesses in London have borrowed £100m through the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme, the bank has confirmed, with 10,853 loans delivered to approximately 10,000 businesses across the capital.
The figure covers the life of the programme, which lends to people who cannot raise start-up finance from a high street bank. It has been published alongside a change to the rules that matters more to most readers than the milestone itself: the scheme has expanded access so that businesses trading for up to five years can now apply, rather than only founders at or before launch.
Hackney and Lewisham lead the capital
Hackney South and Shoreditch is the single largest recipient constituency, with £2.86m of lending to female founders. Lewisham East follows on £2.05m, then Lewisham North on £2.03m, Tottenham on £2.02m and Chelsea and Fulham on £2.00m.
The spread is wider than those headline five suggest. Female business owners in north London took £57.5m across 6,213 loans, while south London accounted for £43m across 4,640 loans, and 58 of London’s 75 parliamentary constituencies have each drawn £1m or more. Across 10,853 loans, the average advance works out at a little over £9,000.
Adjusting for population changes the running order only slightly. On loans per 100,000 residents, Hackney South and Shoreditch again leads on 266, followed by Lewisham North on 229, Lewisham East on 224, Hackney North and Stoke Newington on 220 and Tottenham on 207. Four of the five densest borrowing areas sit in inner east and south-east London rather than the wealthier west, which is where the programme is designed to be used: it exists for founders without collateral, a trading record or a banking relationship to lean on.
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