It was announced in today’s Budget that peer to peer lenders will be able to secured tax relief on bad debts.

Giles Andrews, CEO and co-founder of Zopa, welcomed the news. He said: “It’s great to see the Chancellor tackling an out-dated tax law that disadvantages alternative financial models like peer-to-peer lending.

“From April 2016 thousands of consumers will keep more of their returns from lending as they will now be able to offset any losses against their peer to peer interest when calculating tax due on that interest. Zopa as part of theP2PFA has worked closely with the Treasury to make this become a reality and we very much welcome this important change.

“This is a progressive reform from the Treasury that reflects the growing importance of the UK’s alternative financial services sector.”