SME business finance provider Time Finance has become an accredited lender to deliver funding through the Government-backed Growth Guarantee Scheme in a move that will help the small business community invest and grow.

The scheme will be available across Time Finance’s Asset Finance division, through which businesses can get faster access to new equipment to either expand or adapt operations as they grow and evolve.

Designed to help smaller businesses access finance, the Growth Guarantee Scheme was launched in July as a successor to the Government’s Recovery Loan Scheme and is open to businesses with up to £45m turnover.

Administered by the British Business Bank, the Growth Guarantee Scheme aims to improve the terms for finance deals up to £1m. The Government-backed scheme is expected to benefit around 11,000 small businesses across the country.

Steve Nichols, managing director of Asset Finance at Time Finance, said: “Business finance is about providing solutions that enable businesses to survive and thrive, and the range of recovery and growth initiatives facilitated by the British Business Bank over the past four years are representative of just how important it is to strike that balance.

“The Covid recovery schemes of the past have been much more about survival, and the launch of the Growth Guarantee Scheme is ushering in a much more optimistic era of growth. Working with the British Business Bank, we’re very proud to be part of that story, to have become an accredited lender for our Asset Finance solution, and to be able to give more SMEs access to the vital equipment they need.”

Time Finance operates from four locations across the UK – Bath, Reading, Manchester, and Warrington.