Parliament has passed the Industry and Exports (Financial Assistance) Act 2026, raising the statutory ceilings for government support to industry and exports. According to legislation published on legislation.gov.uk, Royal Assent was granted on 18 March 2026, with commencement set for 18 May 2026. For manufacturers and exporters, this is about larger deal sizes and clearer headroom.

On the domestic industry side, section 8(5) of the Industrial Development Act 1982 is amended: the overall ceiling for selective financial assistance moves from £12,000 million to £20 billion, while the separate individual‑assistance limit rises from £1,000 million to £1.5 billion. This is the legal room the state uses for discretionary grants, loans and guarantees tied to industrial investment projects.

For cross‑border trade, section 6 of the Export and Investment Guarantees Act 1991-administered operationally by UK Export Finance-now states a single sterling commitment limit of £160 billion, replacing the previous 82,700 million special drawing rights reference. The Treasury’s power to adjust the ceiling by order is also translated into sterling, with a cap of £15 billion. Minor drafting changes align cross‑references and clarify that amounts may be expressed in sterling or the equivalent. An obsolete provision in the 2015 Act is removed.

What changes on the ground is capacity and certainty, not automatic approvals. A higher overall ceiling reduces the risk of a hard stop on large manufacturing packages late in the financial year, and a higher individual‑assistance limit means very large projects have a clearer path through due diligence. Think gigafactories, steel decarbonisation, or aerospace upgrades where a single package may now stretch to £1.5 billion rather than £1 billion.

For exporters and their banks, a £160 billion sterling cap signals room for larger multi‑year guarantee programmes without the FX noise that came with an SDR‑denominated ceiling. That can help lenders commit earlier to long‑tenor facilities, performance bond support and working capital lines against export orders. Pricing and cover remain commercial and case‑by‑case, but the state’s headroom is less likely to be the binding constraint.

SMEs won’t be bidding for billion‑pound packages, but they benefit from less crowding‑out. When big tickets do not threaten the national ceiling, there is less reason to ration smaller revolving facilities across the year. If you export, it is sensible to ask your bank whether UKEF‑backed lines can be sized up, extended in tenor or switched from deal‑by‑deal cover to a portfolio approach.

Shifting the legal limit from special drawing rights to sterling also matters for planning. SDRs track a currency basket; sterling does not. By fixing the headline number in pounds, ministers reduce swings in the published capacity caused by exchange‑rate moves. The trade‑off is that the limit no longer drifts up when sterling weakens, so Treasury will need to judge real‑terms capacity periodically.

The Act also tidies up older statutes: it updates internal references in the 1991 Act and removes an obsolete subsection from the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015. The territorial extent is the whole UK, simplifying the message for firms operating across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Timing matters. The law starts on 18 May 2026-after the new tax year has begun-so transactions signing before that date remain under the old limits. Finance directors finalising capital plans this spring may want to schedule closings to fall after commencement if they rely on the higher ceilings. Banks are likely to update internal limits and documentation in step.

The bigger picture is straightforward: government has given itself more room to support productive investment and exports. Subsidy control rules, value‑for‑money tests and credit assessments still apply, so projects must stand up commercially. But the ceiling is no longer the story-the pipeline is.