Loans: Sustainable Development

(asked on 11th September 2026) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to improve transparency in sustainability-linked lending by requiring companies and financial institutions to publish the key performance indicators, targets and independent verification used to assess eligibility for sustainability-linked loans.


Answered by
Lucy Rigby Portrait
Lucy Rigby
Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 12th October 2026

The Government is committed to maintaining a proportionate sustainable finance framework that supports market integrity and economic growth.

Decisions to provide banking services to individual businesses, including through sustainability-linked lending, are commercial decisions for providers. Firms have strict obligations to ensure the legitimacy of a business and protect against financial crime. The Government is committed to regulating business banking only where there is a clear case for doing so, in order to avoid higher costs for lenders that would ultimately flow through to businesses.

The Government is strengthening its approach to tackling deforestation in UK supply chains and announced in June 2026 that it intends to bring forward new regulations in this area. The Government will then review the regulatory framework for tackling deforestation-linked finance within nine months of those regulations being made.

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