The Government threats of a second lockdown are crippling the UK’s small businesses — the backbone of our economy.
In March 2020, I wrote a piece for the Evening Standard online, with tips and tricks about how small businesses could survive the daunting lockdown. It was during a time of fear, uncertainty, and an expectation for a difficult 6 months ahead. Many businesses saw September as a time when a pinch point would be released; it seemed unfathomable to consider that the turbulence shaking the UK’s small businesses would still be making an impact. We now find ourselves, 6 months on, and living in a perpetual, mental borstal, limited by achey conversation and fickle scaremongering, shaming entrepreneurs and business owners into professional paralysis.
The recent measures announced on Tuesday ought not to change much, certainly for small businesses. The part time Covid enthusiasts, terrified for their lives and safety in the week, but happy to unleash themselves on our, now busier, pubs and bars (pre 10pm of course), are not dining out on Dishy Rishi’s bonanza, but instead on Boris, as he bakes up a lasagne of hypocrisy. The watered down, piecemeal legislation provides a plethora of opportunity for misunderstanding and misinterpretation. The reality, for a number of small businesses, is that the restrictions impact a supply chain, breaking the circle, so it can’t roll. The stop / start nature of the advice, albeit most likely as robust as it could have been at the time, is driving us dangerously closer toward defiance — are the current provisions really doing the most for the many? The admin alone of having to constantly change workplace policy, invest in remote working, a realistic decrease in productivity, or, a complete ‘tools down’ scenario for almost all the service + travel industry, is exhausting, unsustainable and unproductive. In order to get moving again, we must get moving again. We have now what we didn’t have in March, 6 months of data to inform individual decision making, in lieu of any persuasive leadership. As the statistics lack context, they fail to inform. It would stand to reason that a substantial hike in testing would yield a higher detection of cases. Small businesses currently lack clarity on the direction for their survival from the Government. Tax breaks, mortgage holidays, furlough and social distancing demonstrated a gesture to develop a method to keep the economy alive without jeopardising the lives of the population, what small business owners are waiting for, is the approval for empowerment to use their own common sense, and to run their businesses as they see fit, in the face of a calamitous Government response.
Preparation, liquidity and digitisation seem to be the strategic levers small businesses are using to protect them against future crises. But are we asking too much of them? Reports show that 1 in 5 businesses wouldn’t survive a second lockdown, and, as we hurtle perilously close to the cliff edge that is the end of the furlough scheme, it doesn’t seem hyperbolic to consider the second pandemic we are sleepwalking into; one of mental and physical health. Any suggestion that a second lockdown impacts only economically would be remiss of us. The reality of the impact of businesses failing, curbs on our freedom, and a constant overhang of doom and gloom as we enter into winter, is staggering in terms of mental health and emotional resilience. We must stimulate people emotionally, mentally and physically; repressing that can be incredibly damaging. Relationships break down, lifestyles change, shame and isolation impacts those most vulnerable, domestic violence increases, obesity rises — have we really considered the long term effects of the current strategy? Because it will likely be the relentless young entrepreneurs, inspired by lack of opportunity to lean into their creative minds, who will be paying for it.
Big businesses, touting their renewed vigour for remote working, are unhelpful in understanding the plight of start ups and scale ups. Many of these small businesses, run by young, energetic, talented and dynamic people, want to get back to work. As a personal note, working twice as hard, for half the money, to stand still, begins to wear. Whilst we might have had signals that suggest we are at the end of the beginning, we are still expectant of a possible second lockdown — something that has widely been rejected by politicians, academics, economists, and angry Twitter enthusiasts, as being catastrophic. It is undoubtable that the length of time we work remotely is inversely proportional to productivity, especially from our Gen Z and Millennial colleagues. Whilst it makes for easy headlines to lambaste ‘the young’ as reckless and lazy, there seems to be a rampant desire to ‘get on with things’ — even if those things include work. We are a nation that champions and celebrates start ups. We know 36% of students have a viable side hustle, and we want to raise a generation of entrepreneurs, working to pursue their innovative business ideas, in a climate that can set them up to win. 672,890 new companies were incorporated in the UK last year. That is more than one company formation per minute. In March 2020, 21,000 more businesses collapsed than the 2019 statistic shows (Enterprise Research Centre).
Business is about confidence. Threats of a national lockdown, restrictions placed on the engine room of our economy, now known to be the least at risk from the virus, creates apathy at best, and anarchy at worst. The statistics show that more people over the age of 100 have died of the Coronavirus, than those under 45 years old. At some point, the Government needs to look down the televised lens of the nation, and make the call that they’ve avoided throughout 2020; that your 90 year old grandmother who has one lung and lives in a care home, is not worth crippling an entire country’s economy. There must be some conversation, at some point, about value, and what the relative cost is to that. The imminent physical and mental health on the horizon, makes daybreak a terrifying thought. Boris promised to wrap his arms around the businesses of this country. Right now, that feels like an empty embrace.
James Balfour from 1Rebel comments; “We live in a very challenging time and whilst I appreciate the need to curtail parts of the hospitality business I think the government is missing the overriding message people need to hear. Whilst in the midst of a vicious respiratory disease, the silver bullet in the absence of a vaccine is getting the nation fit. UK Active recently did a study of 1,000 gyms who have had 24 million visits since reopening with just 129 suspected cases of infection. When we look back at this period people will not regret the workout they did in preparation to fight this disease. We need the nation to workout to help out.”
Mr Geldart, director general of the Institute of Directors, said: “Directors know that the battle with this virus is far from over, and they want to play their part in preventing a second spike, which would extend the economic pain. As the Government begins to ask more people to return to work, it’s vital that the guidance is clear so that companies can plan how to return safely.”
CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn said she was still waiting to see that “overall plan”, adding: “We need forward guidance — an understanding of what might happen and when.”
Adam Marshall, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said businesses needed clarity. There is already confusion on the ground. We want some answers to the big questions around the timeline — will we have enough notice?
Financial support for businesses during coronavirus (COVID-19)
