The British Business Bank’s fifth annual Nations and Regions Tracker, published today, reports that the East of England continues to play a dominant role as a finance hub for the UK.
In 2024, Cambridge & Peterborough outperformed all other Mayoral Strategic Authorities outside London in the overall value of equity investment (worth £748 million) flowing to local businesses. Alongside Greater Manchester, it also had the largest deal count (82).
The report found that the East of England continues to perform as a leading finance hub, largely due to its thriving innovation clusters and a proximity to investors.
External finance use increases in East of England amid nationwide stability
Smaller businesses in the East of England recorded the second highest increase in the use of external finance, behind the North West, boasting a 3 percentage point increase to 44%.
Elsewhere, half of the 12 UK Nations and regions experienced a decline in their share of smaller businesses using external finance; part of a UK-wide decrease of one percentage point to 45%.
This reflects a shift from strong growth last year (10 percentage points) to a period of stability in access to external finance. Across the UK, the report also found that the proportion of smaller businesses open to seeking external finance to grow increased by five percentage points to 38% from the previous year, indicating cautious optimism.
Credit cards remain most used type of finance
Credit cards remained the most used type of finance by smaller businesses in the East of England (17%) and was higher in the region than any other across the UK.
This trend was reflected across the UK, with credit cards used by 15% of smaller businesses, followed by bank overdrafts (11%), and leasing, hire purchase and vehicle finance at 10%. In 2024, small business loans and overdrafts from major banks increased by 33% in number and 4% in value compared to 2023, reversing previous declines.
However, uneven distribution of loans and overdrafts remained. Between 2022 and 2024, the East of England fell below the UK average in both the number and value of loans and overdrafts per capita, with an average of 135 facilities and £19m per 10,000 smaller businesses compared with 169 facilities and £29 million for the UK as a whol
British Business Bank driving impact across East of England
The British Business Bank has continued to deliver significant support to smaller businesses across the East of England through its debt and equity finance programmes. This year, as part of its £5bn lending milestone for the ENABLE scheme, the Bank announced that it had delivered £500m to the East of England. Similarly, the Bank marked a milestone of £2.5bn for its Growth Guarantee Scheme and revealed that it delivered over £200m in funding to the East of England.
The Bank is expanding geographically-focused interventions to support the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy and unlock regional potential. In June 2025, the government committed £6.6bn to the Bank, increasing its total financial capacity to £25.6bn. Of this increase, £350m has been allocated to two new Nations and Regions Investment Funds in the East of England and South East, expanding targeted finance to every UK Nation and region outside London.
Steve Conibear, UK Network Director, East of England, for the British Business Bank, said: “In the face of a challenging economic environment, the East of England remains a key financial hub for the UK. It is encouraging that this year’s Nations and Regions Tracker showed that external finance use increased in the East of England last year, owing to the continued supremacy of Cambridge & Peterborough’s university spinouts.
“The British Business Bank is pivotal to providing businesses across our regions with access to the finance they need. With the expanded capacity of the Bank under the Modern Industrial Strategy, we are poised to build on our existing work across the East of England, including the new investment fund for the region.”
