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Business West 'we need to help firms post lockdown'

Business West are calling on The Government to help firms 'falling through the gaps' of coronavirus support packages as they look at how firms can operate post lockdown

Matt Griffith, Director of Policy, said: "We're working quite a lot with those businesses who have fallen through the gaps. Whether it's limited companies, whether it's business who haven't been able to access the grants because they don't pay rates directly. 

"So that's been really important and obviously as we're now in the ninth week of lockdown businesses who've had a big shock to income and haven't had government support are really struggling. So we're doing a lot of lobby work around that at the moment.

"We're also starting to turn our mind to the future as are most businesses about what the world looks like. There is going to be a really important balance here.

"The balance uppermost in people's minds is how do they protect their staff, how they protect their customers as we start to ease social distancing. But also how do we get people back on their bike and start pedaling in relation to their individual business making sure it works.

"Running a business is like a bicycle. If you stop pedalling you tend to fall over. So it's really important that those who have fallen over or are stuck are given help to do that. 

"Clearly a lot of businesses are looking to government for a lead on here about how this is coordinated, how the plan will operate and how it evolves.

"And I guess the question as well is if we're moving more slowly, or more cautiously out of lock down than we might have initially expected how government support continues.

"If it phases out how it phases out. Whether some schemes will have to be extended and how we do so in a way that stimulates demand, stimulates so we don't have a deep recession, we get out of recession as quickly as possible."

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