British Business Bank: Research
(asked on 21st October 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what performance indicators his Department uses to measure the extent to which the British Business Bank has reduced the scale-up financing gap of R&D intensive companies.
Answered by
Blair McDougall
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The indicator used to assess the financing gap is venture capital (VC) investment as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the UK as compared to the US, measured over 3 years. This gap (across all sectors) has narrowed from 30% greater investment in the US in 2019-2021 to 10% for 2022-2024.
The British Business Bank’s Small Business Equity Tracker report 2025 notes that the gap for R&D intensive sectors is wider. VC investment in these industries represented 0.25% of GDP in the UK during 2022-2024 against 0.31% in the US, equivalent to a gap of 30%.
Between 2022 and 2024, 49% of Bank-supported deals were in the tech sector, compared to 42% of deals across the overall market.