Our Ethos
Agricultural businesses need funding for a variety of reasons, but they also need a finance provider who understands their business and the challenges they face. At UK Agricultural Finance we are specialists in agricultural lending and can offer the flexibility, speed and understanding your agricultural business needs.
At the heart of our business is the desire to provide the agricultural sector with finance options that help it develop and grow. We know rural property and rural businesses; the driving factors, the challenges, and the appeal of taking on this type of initiative. More importantly, we understand lending against land for unique enterprises that aren’t simple businesses and that a ‘one size fits all’ approach isn’t helpful.
We believe in taking time to understand our borrowers’ needs, so we can tailor solutions to fit their objectives. We aim to be reliable partners, who act with integrity and deliver every time on what we say we will do. You’ll find us to be pragmatic, with common sense, and a flexible attitude.
We believe passionately in responsible lending. This means providing useful, relevant and fair products to our borrowers, that also deliver a fair return to our investors. Therefore, we expect our borrowers to be fully open and honest with us, and communicate in a timely manner, ensuring we have all necessary information. In return, we will deal openly, honestly and promptly with our borrowers and do whatever we can to help their businesses succeed.
Customer Relationship Team
Tracey Simm
Tracey has spent her whole career in finance and banking. She gained experience in personal and…
Sue McIntosh-Gibbs
With over 35 years of experience in finance, Sue understands the opportunities and challenges…
Louise Old
Louise is our Client Relationship Manager based in the North of England. She joined UK…
Ryan Morley
Ryan is our Client Relationship Manager for the East of England, joining UK Agricultural Finance…
Nicola Purcell
Nicola moved to Cornwall 7 years ago. Prior to her move, she had worked in the insurance industry…
Underwriting Team
Billy Attridge
Billy has 32 years of experience working in financial services and has spent most of his career…
Sarah Beard
Sarah has worked within the underwriting field for over 20 years within the banking sector for…
Dayle Hayward
Dayle has worked in the finance industry for 7 years and prior to joining UK Agricultural Finance…
Nikki Ward
Nikki has 34 years of experience working in Banking, Underwriting and Financial Services. The majority…
Molly Burbidge
Molly has over 10 years finance experience working in a manufacturing background…
Director Team
Graham Noble
Founder and Director
Graham is a highly experienced investor, having worked for Credit Suisse and UBS. Since 2008…
Mark Thompson
CEO
Before joining UKAF, Mark was the founder and managing director of Tiptree House, a corporate…
Robert Suss
Non-Executive Director
Rob Suss is presently the CEO of Pictet UK. Rob helped found UK Agricultural Finance and…
Finance Team
Sue Burgess
Sue is an experienced financial professional and Chartered Accountant with over 30 years of…
Vanessa Cuthbertson
Vanessa has accumulated 22 years of work experience in front, middle and back office operational…
Vicky Hodges
Vicky has always worked in finance and banking. She worked as a Financial Adviser with companies…
Risk management
We are all about a fair deal for borrowers who want quick, simple and flexible agricultural finance; a fair deal for our investors; and a fair return for us. This means we take risk management and responsible lending very seriously: they help protect our borrowers and the wider rural community, as well as our business and investors.
If you’re a borrower:
- We recommend independent financial advice before applying for a loan from an IFA, business adviser, NACFB accredited broker or chartered accountant.
- We insist that you have independent legal advice from a qualified solicitor.
- We always visit your farm and don’t just rely on the usual box ticks, as we like to take a holistic view of you and your business. This helps us assess if you will make a good borrower, but also means you get to deal with a real person and have chance to understand us as well.
- We do lots of checks and ask for a fair bit of normal business paperwork. None of this is unusual and we will help you through this process, although the more organised you are at the outset, the easier this will be. Your professional advisers should also be able to help you with this.
- We don’t formally assess your business plan, but do need to see a credible use for our loan proceeds that demonstrates how you will: (i) increase your business’s capital value or its income; (ii) afford our loan; and, (iii) repay it at the end of the term or refinance it from a reputable source.
- We don’t require you to have a perfect credit record, as we’ve been in business long enough to know that there are always bumps in the road, especially in agriculture. However, we do need you to be upfront about any issues and to be sure that you have honoured any previous debts.
- We expect you to have relevant experience or access to expert advice and a credible business track record. However, if you’re just starting up, for example buying out the family farm, we may still help if you have an appropriate guarantor (typically a parent or sibling) and support.
- If we’re lending to a company, we always require personal guarantees from all the directors and any substantial shareholders.
- We’re fair, pragmatic and approachable, but also aim to be responsible and turn down a borrower if we don’t feel comfortable lending to them, or if we believe our loan isn’t in their best interest.
Before taking out a loan from us, it’s important that you familiarise yourself with our Terms & Conditions and click here for our Tariff of Charges
