Try Fundladder with the businesses you support
Free for public bodies, trade bodies, adviser networks and banks’ small business teams. You try the site’s own tools, unchanged: every way a UK business can raise money, cheapest first, with the downsides, the true cost and what to prepare.
Why start with businesses a bank turns down
Responses to the government’s consultation on the Bank Referral Scheme said that roughly 5% of referred businesses go on to get alternative finance, and a common theme was that businesses “needed further help in order to understand and improve their readiness for credit”. The government has asked the industry for one set of proposals by Friday 18 December 2026. The pack below is that help: what to do after a no, every route that does not depend on a bank, and what each one asks for.
Source: HM Treasury, government response on commercial credit data sharing and the Bank Referral Scheme (May 2026), paragraphs 4.2, 4.3 and 5.5 · checked 23 October 2026
What is in the pack
- 1 · PageMy bank said no. What now?What to do after a no, then 18 routes that do not depend on a bank, cheapest first, and a checklist of what to prepare.
- 2 · QuestionsYour funding options9 questions give a business its own ladder: each route fits, possible or unlikely, and why. Fixed rules, worked out in the browser.
- 3 · Adviser modeWith a clientFor accountants, Growth Hub advisers and relationship managers: the questions with a client, then the results, a checklist and your notes to hand over.
- 4 · EmbedOn your own siteThe pack inside your page, with its disclaimer and sources. Links open fundladder.uk in a new tab. No cookies.
Videos
To pass on to colleagues. Captions are on. For business owners there is the five-minute video guide.
The trial pack · 5 minutes
For trade bodies, public bodies and Growth Hubs. Download (MP4)
After a no: the trial pack for banks · 3 minutes
For banks' small business teams. Download (MP4)
The embed
Paste this into your page. The embed is the only page on fundladder.uk another site may show in a frame.
<iframe src="https://fundladder.uk/demo/embed" title="My bank said no. What now? (Fundladder)" width="100%" height="900" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>Trial terms
In full, to print and fill in: trial terms. For supplier and data protection checks: data and security.
- The tools stay as they are
- The same order, words, sources and Last checked dates as fundladder.uk. A trial partner cannot change them, during the trial or after.
- No data
- Nothing a business types reaches you or us. This copy of the questions has no box for describing the business, so nothing is sent to an AI company.
- Free, for a fixed time
- Up to three months for a public body, trade body or adviser network; up to 90 days, for staff only, for a bank. Either side can stop at any time.
- The next step agreed first
- Before a trial starts we agree what happens after it: a paid licence at a price set in advance, or simply the end of the trial.
- What we ask for
- A short written result at the end: what your advisers or staff found, and any counts from your own pages. We count nothing on ours.
- Published
- Trial partners are listed below once they agree to their trial starting.
Trial partners
None yet.
Start a trial
Write to data@fundladder.uk with who you support and how you would like to try it. How we stay impartial, and what we will never do, is set out in our disclaimer and privacy notice.