A view from our Director of Conister, Douglas Grant, in response to the UK government green plan.

The government’s plan shows that it is serious about a transition to a new economy, with some concrete commitments announced to accelerate the move towards a net zero carbon economy by 2050.

There are significant opportunities for the SME sector to capitalise on this transition – and while government funding will be important, access to credit will be critical for entrepreneurs and businesses to take advantage of these new opportunities as well as to help them adapt and change their business models.

The specialist lender segment will be critical to providing that support alongside government funding.

We are already seeing signs of the SME segment pivoting towards the green economy, with Covid-19 serving as an accelerator. We have recently completed two loans to fund green SMEs, worth a total of £4 million – one for Propensio Finance, to enable their customers to have access to affordable finance to purchase renewable energy products and the second one to BeWarm Group, to allow the company to offer financing solutions to its customers.