The British Business Bank has confirmed that work is progressing with the UK Government and major aerospace companies including Airbus, GKN Aerospace, Rolls-Royce and the trade body ADS, towards creating a proposed £100m aerospace supply chain fund to support UK suppliers and strengthen manufacturing capability across the sector.
The British Business Bank is an economic development bank that is wholly owned by the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, but operationally independent.
The debt fund is intended to help strengthen the aerospace supply chain by giving high-potential UK suppliers access to structured capital in order to help them scale, increase output, invest, and compete in the market, while preparing for future aircraft programmes.
The proposal supports the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy and the ambitions of the Aerospace Growth Partnership to strengthen the UK aerospace supply chain. By backing what the British Business Bank refers to as a “fast-growing priority sector”, the Bank will making its capital available to help innovative UK companies secure scale-up capital.
Louis Taylor, CEO of the British Business Bank said: “The continued success of the UK’s aerospace sector depends on the capacity, resilience and competitiveness of the supply chain that sits behind it. This fund will help strengthen the aerospace supply chain by giving high potential UK suppliers the capital they need to scale, invest and compete for future aircraft work.”
“By bringing together public and private sector investment, we can support a strategically important sector, back high-value manufacturing jobs, and help more UK businesses play a larger role in global aerospace supply chains,” he added.
The UK Government and the British Business Bank are continuing to work with the aerospace industry to develop the fund structure, the high-level investment criteria, and the delivery route. Further details will be released once the proposition is sufficiently developed.
