Government-backed loans are commercial facilities from ordinary lenders where the government provides a partial guarantee to the lender against loss. The lender still lends its own money and still decides who to lend to. Crucially, the guarantee does not protect you — you remain liable for the full debt.
This is the point most often misunderstood. If you fall behind, the lender pursues you in the normal way, and any security or personal guarantee can be enforced. The government guarantee only affects what the lender can recover afterwards.
The purpose of such schemes is to encourage lending to viable businesses that might otherwise be declined, often because they lack the security a lender would usually want. It is about access to finance, not about relaxing repayment obligations. Accredited lenders are generally expected to use a guarantee only where they could not have offered a facility on equivalent terms without it.
In the UK the main current scheme of this type is the Growth Guarantee Scheme, administered by the British Business Bank on behalf of government. Only accredited lenders can offer scheme-backed facilities, and each applies its own criteria on top of the scheme rules. Terms, fees and interest are set by the lender.
We can identify which accredited lenders on our panel might suit your circumstances and present your case to them. Any decision rests with the lender, and approval is never guaranteed.