A bar in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter has created four new jobs after opening a new roof top bar and patio, using £300,000 of funding from Lloyds Commercial Banking.

Vertu Bar in Frederick Street was purchased as a derelict property in 2007 by owners Paul and Natalie Wager. Since then it has been extensively renovated culminating in the recent opening of the roof top bar and patio area.

Lloyds has been supporting the venture for several years with the latest grant coming from its Funding for Lending (FLS) scheme.

Giles Wheeler, relationship manager at Lloyds Commercial Banking, said: “Providing financial support to help businesses with expansion projects demonstrates our commitment to SMEs. Since we launched our FLS offerings we have committed £3.3 billion to our SME customers and we have pledged to lend £5 billion through the scheme in 2013.”

Paul Wager, owner of Vertu Bar which now employs 16 staff, said: “Since we opened the bar it has been our aim to create a relaxing environment where people can socialise and enjoy themselves. We’ve worked hard to design a unique and stylish space, but at our busiest times the bar simply wasn’t big enough and it became clear we needed to create more space.”

Andy Youngman, area director SME banking in Birmingham, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Across the West Midlands we have continued to grow our lending to SMEs by 4.2 per cent year-on-year, on a net basis.