Success Story
| Region/Nation | Wales |
|---|---|
| Programme | Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) |
| Partner |
Seeking funding to complete a new scheme of bungalows while COVID-19 restrictions remained in place became a real challenge for this property developer. With lenders forced to tighten their belts, the company found its best option was to turn to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) for financial support.
Read what it had to say in this CBILS case study.
British Business Bank: Can you tell us what your company does?
Neil Dodd, co-owner of New Generation Developments: Our business focuses primarily on developing opportunities that enable us to create or upgrade residential and commercial properties, led by construction professionals with expert knowledge and experience.
How did COVID-19 affect your business, and why did this mean you needed funding?
We were already seeking finance to help develop a scheme of nine three-bedroom bungalows in West Wales. We’d identified Assetz Capital as one potential funder with interests in Wales.
Their senior relationship manager had visited the site and deemed that things were progressing well. But then the first COVID-19 lockdown restrictions intervened, the manager at Assetz Capital was furloughed, and the lender had to stop providing funding itself. It was then we learned of CBILS and its availability, and from that point we were able to submit a successful application.
How did you find the application process?
The application process was slick, and we were able to move forward with the project relatively quickly given the circumstances.
The CBILS loan gave us the cashflow not only to conclude the purchase of the site, but to cover costs for the development. - Neil Dodd co-owner of New Generation Developments
Can you provide a specific example of how you used the funding to bring about a positive change (or changes) to your business?
The CBILS loan gave us the cashflow not only to conclude the purchase of the site in West Wales, but to cover costs for the development, including professional fees, 20% contingency fees and sufficient interest to service several months’ worth of debt after the first year.
As an example of how efficiently the operation went, within a matter of hours of receiving the funding in January 2021, all the equipment for foundations for a road and for four of the nine properties was delivered to the site, ready to start work.
In what way did the funding help your business survive?
Given that our prior sources of funding had been stopped entirely, receiving the CBILS loan simply meant that we could carry on with the development.
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