Ukie welcomes UK government's IP-backed lending plans for games studios

• The government has allocated £500m to the British Business Bank's ENABLE Guarantee programme.
• The Growth Guarantee Scheme will support an additional £2bn in SME lending annually by 2028/29.
• Ukie and the UK Video Game Council helped build the case for IP-backed lending.

Ukie has welcomed the UK government's plans to expand access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses.

The plan includes new support for intellectual property-backed lending aimed at helping game studios secure funding against the value of their IP.

The measures form part of the Chancellor's latest SME finance package, which includes a £500 million ($671m) allocation to the British Business Bank's Enable Guarantee programme and a major expansion of the Growth Guarantee Scheme. 

The government said the changes are intended to help businesses grow, invest and create jobs, while addressing an estimated annual SME finance gap of between £1.6bn ($2.1bn) and £4.1bn ($5.5bn).

The Growth Guarantee Scheme, which provides a 70% government guarantee on commercial loans of up to £2m ($2.6m), will expand to facilitate an additional £2bn ($2.6bn) of SME lending each year by 2028/29, supporting an estimated 20,000 businesses annually, up from 8,000 today.

IP-backed lending

Ukie said the announcement represents a significant step forward for creative businesses seeking to raise finance against the value of their intellectual property. 

The trade body, alongside the UK Video Game Council chaired by Nick Button-Brown, has worked with the British Business Bank to demonstrate how games studios' IP assets can be recognised by commercial lenders as a driver of growth.

Ukie said the announcement delivers on a commitment made in the Creative Industries Sector Plan and reflects ongoing collaboration between industry and government to address the financing gap facing IP-rich SMEs.

“For years, games studios with genuinely valuable IP have been treated by lenders the same way as businesses with no assets at all," said Ukie CEO Nick Poole.

“Britain is a world leader at creating that IP, but too often the only way to scale it has been to look overseas for investment, taking value and growth out of the UK in the process.

“Nick Button-Brown and the Video Games Council have worked with the British Business Bank to enable more debt to be available through IP-backed lending."