Almost a fifth of a million small businesses have fallen into arrears on their bounceback loan repayments, far more than the number officially published.
A Freedom of Information request to the British Business Bank, the state-run body administering the bounceback scheme, has flushed out a figure of 193,000 firms that have failed to meet their repayment terms as at June 27.
That is about one in eight of the 1.5 million small businesses encouraged to take part in the scheme, the centrepiece of Rishi Sunak’s plan to help smaller firms during the depths of the pandemic when he was chancellor.
It compares with the most up to date official number from BBB of 106,000 bounceback borrowers in arrears as at September 30 2021.
