Fresh 4-week lockdown period for England - business reaction

Business in the South West will be left reeling by Boris Johnson’s announcement that England will go into a national lockdown for a month from Thursday.

Here in the South West, the virus figures have been relatively low compared with the rest of the country, but we have now been warned that our hospitals could soon reach their capacity through COVID.

So, the big dilemma - as ever with this pandemic - was the unenviable government decision: lives or livelihoods.

And rightly, the escalating figures of the virus - infections doubling every week - meant that the Prime Minister was forced into what could only be assumed to have been a somewhat humiliating U-turn in ordering our second national lockdown until 2nd December.

For businesses in our region, there was one piece of relief in that Boris Johnson announced that the furlough scheme would be extended until 2nd December.

I talked to Phil Smith, Business West’s Managing Director, after Boris Johnson’s  TV address to the nation.

“The impact of a month’s restrictions on businesses will ripple throughout the economy and will be shattering for those forced to close.”, he said.

“Many companies have worked hard to make their workplaces and services COVID-safe, so it will now be a bitter disappointment and in fact, ruinous for some.

 “The extension of the furlough scheme is welcome and our British Chambers of Commerce network has been pressing for this.

“However, business costs are not just limited to employees’ wages, rents and rates. Tax and lease payments all keep coming even if your sales are down.

“We will now be asking the Chancellor to provide extra financial support for business to cope with these restrictions.

“And if the restrictions announced to end on 2nd December do not work, it seems obvious that the Lockdown will be extended”.

The lockdown restrictions will now be put to a parliamentary vote on Wednesday after a day in which the government was forced to make their announcement last night following a leak of the details to newspapers.

What is certain is that the government must really get hold of its communications on COVID. They have been something of a shambles and business must kept in the picture properly.