COVID-19: Let us know what you think of the Government's unprecedented support for workers...

I fear I too must take the welcome advisement of Government support of businesses with severe reservations regarding its capability for effective application.

Throwing any amount of subsides and support at the problems will not have a material effect if other considerations are not addressed and resolved.

The reality is that many SMEs are already financially committed to the hilt, either to expand or restructure their markets (not least in response to Brexit and its looming and unresolved threats to trade with European customers and "known quantity" opportunities), or in efforts to adjust to the accumulating effects of on-line suppliers on traditional markets: If major high-street names in retail and service supply are finding themselves forced aside by online competition, only to be further rocked by the Corvid 19 crisis, what chance have SME and local traders, service suppliers and tradesmen in similar circumstances?

"Tiding over" even a month of wages and other overheads with no viable income, and with creditors who will have their own concerns regarding their supply of further goods or credit to debtors they now know have no ability to meet the resulting bills (and so far without indication of how any subsidies will apply), might as well be six months, a year, or forever! Those with responsible lenders (e.g. the major banks) might well be permitted to extend overdrafts and be given a "let" on payments for a month (or two), but will even that be enough? On the other end of the borrowing market, businesses relying on credit from suppliers with their own bills to pay are unlikely to be offered more flexibility in these circumstances, and those whose lenders are already strictly enforcing their terms are likely to receive short-shrift when requesting even a month of relief while the Government clarifies what is on offer and how it will apply.... and for Gov.UK to move that fast is, I fear, also something of a forlorn hope, since its Civil-servants too will need to make some tough and realistic assessments of who is to get what, and which sectors will be prioritised.

The announcement of support makes good political headlines; the principle is welcome, and holds out hope in a suddenly grim commercial landscape, but how effective it will eventually be (and how "real" in terms of genuinely new funding and initiatives) is a question far from answered.

...But I hope, for all our sakes, to be answered both fully, and very quickly.

P

I fear I too must take the welcome advisement of Government support of businesses with severe reservations regarding its capability for effective application.

Throwing any amount of subsides and support at the problems will not have a material effect if other considerations are not addressed and resolved.

The reality is that many SMEs are already financially committed to the hilt, either to expand or restructure their markets (not least in response to Brexit and its looming and unresolved threats to trade with European customers and "known quantity" opportunities), or in efforts to adjust to the accumulating effects of on-line suppliers on traditional markets: If major high-street names in retail and service supply are finding themselves forced aside by online competition, only to be further rocked by the Corvid 19 crisis, what chance have SME and local traders, service suppliers and tradesmen in similar circumstances?

"Tiding over" even a month of wages and other overheads with no viable income, and with creditors who will have their own concerns regarding their supply of further goods or credit to debtors they now know have no ability to meet the resulting bills (and so far without indication of how any subsidies will apply), might as well be six months, a year, or forever! Those with responsible lenders (e.g. the major banks) might well be permitted to extend overdrafts and be given a "let" on payments for a month (or two), but will even that be enough? On the other end of the borrowing market, businesses relying on credit from suppliers with their own bills to pay are unlikely to be offered more flexibility in these circumstances, and those whose lenders are already strictly enforcing their terms are likely to receive short-shrift when requesting even a month of relief while the Government clarifies what is on offer and how it will apply.... and for Gov.UK to move that fast is, I fear, also something of a forlorn hope, since its Civil-servants too will need to make some tough and realistic assessments of who is to get what, and which sectors will be prioritised.

The announcement of support makes good political headlines; the principle is welcome, and holds out hope in a suddenly grim commercial landscape, but how effective it will eventually be (and how "real" in terms of genuinely new funding and initiatives) is a question far from answered.

...But I hope, for all our sakes, to be answered both fully, and very quickly.

P