UKEF export finance backs 85,000 UK jobs with £11bn
On 9 July 2026, the government said UK Export Finance, known as UKEF, had provided more than £11 billion in loans, guarantees and insurance during the 2025-26 financial year. According to UKEF’s annual report, that support helped back contracts in 37 countries, an estimated 85,000 jobs across the UK and up to £6.4 billion in national GDP. If that sounds technical, the practical point is simpler. When a British firm wins work overseas, it often needs finance before it gets paid. This story is really about whether businesses can afford to take those orders, keep staff in work and grow rather than turning deals down.
UKEF is the UK’s export credit agency, which means it is the government body that steps in when private lenders or insurers will not cover a deal on their own. The department says it has £130 billion of capacity and exists so that no viable UK export should fail just because finance or insurance is missing. **What export finance means in everyday terms:** a loan can give a company cash to make an order, a guarantee can make a bank more willing to lend, and insurance can protect against the risk that a buyer overseas does not pay. The government also says UKEF works at no net cost to the taxpayer, which is a key part of how ministers defend a large public role in trade finance.
Ministers are also using these figures to argue for a bigger and more modern role for UKEF. Legislation due to be set out in Parliament would widen the agency’s mandate so it can do more on economic resilience, critical supply chains and long-term growth. When ministers talk about the government’s Growth Mission, they mean a wider plan to raise investment, exports and jobs. In this case, the government says UKEF’s recent support has been strongest in advanced manufacturing, defence, sustainable energy and critical minerals, all sectors it sees as important for work, production and economic security.
One useful note for readers is that phrases such as jobs supported and GDP backed are estimates, not a direct headcount created by UKEF itself. In other words, the agency did not hire 85,000 people. The claim is that the deals it helped finance kept work moving through factories, suppliers, ports, offices and service firms around the country. **A quick media literacy check:** that does not make the figures meaningless, but it does mean you should read them as modelled economic impact rather than a neat tally. Government press releases are written to make a case, so it is always worth asking how numbers were calculated and what assumptions sit behind them.
Smaller firms are a major part of the government’s pitch. UKEF says 616 of the businesses it directly supported last year were SMEs, making up 66 per cent of the total. That matters because smaller exporters often face the hardest questions from lenders: do you have enough cash to fill the order, can you wait months for payment, and what happens if the overseas buyer pulls out? To widen access, UKEF added White Oak and Nighthawk as non-bank lending partners during the financial year and, more recently, Mercore. In January, it also announced an £11 billion joint lending commitment from five leading UK banks. **What this means for you:** more lenders in the system can give smaller exporters more than one route to finance, which can make the difference between taking a contract and walking away from it.
The examples in the report help make the policy feel less abstract. Wold Top Brewery in Yorkshire used UKEF’s General Export Facility to secure a £200,000 trade loan from Virgin Money, helping the family-run business grow exports to Europe and North America. Another example is Dulas, a renewable energy company with sites in Mid Wales, Inverness and Bognor Regis. With backing from UKEF and HSBC UK, the company has used successive finance packages to keep production going, expand operations and deliver solar-powered vaccine refrigeration to immunisation programmes in more than 80 countries. That is a useful reminder that trade finance is not only about very large exporters; it can also help firms doing practical public-health work.
Large companies still feature heavily. UKEF points to a £1.5 billion Export Development Guarantee for Jaguar Land Rover, as well as support connected to Thales UK, which is supplying defence equipment to Ukraine. These are the kinds of deals ministers like to highlight because they show how export finance can run through long supply chains, reaching smaller contractors as well as the headline name. There is, though, a wider political question here. When governments back major industries, they are making choices about which sectors deserve public support and why. Supporters say this protects skilled work, strengthens domestic supply chains and gives the UK more economic security. Critics will ask how risk is assessed, who benefits most, and how public backing is balanced against other spending pressures.
Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said the results showed support across sectors, from breweries to renewable energy, while UKEF chief executive Tim Reid argued the agency was turning overseas demand into jobs and growth across the country. The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade also said trade finance remains one of the biggest barriers for exporters during a period of economic uncertainty and geopolitical strain, a view echoed by the British Exporters Association. For The Common Room reader, the takeaway is quite straightforward. Export finance may sound distant from everyday life, but it reaches into wages, local supply chains, apprenticeships and whether smaller firms can compete with bigger rivals. If Parliament gives UKEF new powers, the key question will not just be how much money is announced, but who can actually use that support and what kind of economy it helps build.