£2bn of ‘bounce back’ loans for SMEs approved in first 24 hours May 6, 2020 More than 69,000 so-called coronavirus bounce back loans were approved on the first day of them being made available via banks. The approvals equate to over £2bn in loans during the first 24 hours of the bounce back scheme’s launch on Monday, chancellor Rishi Sunak said today. The seven largest UK banks including HSBC, Barclays, [...]
Business organisations form coalition in response to coronavirus May 6, 2020 Leading employer organisations have joined forces to create a united voice for business in response to the coronavirus pandemic. A group of more than 20 organisations have formed the Business Action Council (BAC), which claims to represent more than half a million businesses across the UK. Its founding members include the Confederation of British Industry [...]
Norman Lamont: Britons not prepared for the economic hardship ‘around the corner’ May 6, 2020 Former chancellor Lord Norman Lamont has warned the government’s furlough scheme has made people complacent and unaware of the coming economic hardship. Lamont, chancellor under Conservative Prime Minister John Major, said the scheme had lulled “people into a false sense of security” and that many do not realise “their jobs have disappeared or are about [...]
Barclays approves over 32,000 ‘bounce back’ loans May 5, 2020 Barclays has approved over 32,000 “bounce back” loans since the scheme was launched yesterday. Yesterday, the bank said it received 35 loan applications per minute when the government launched the new scheme. Barclays UK chief executive Matt Hammerstein told a House of Commons committee that the bank had received 200 applications within minutes of opening [...]
Virgin Atlantic to cut 3,150 jobs and quit Gatwick base May 5, 2020 Virgin Atlantic will cut a third of its workforce and cease its operations at Gatwick airport in a bid to survive the coronavirus crisis, the embattled airline announced today. The carrier, which will cut 3,150 of 10,000 strong workforce, is the latest airline to announce major job cuts after Ryanair and British Airways. In a [...]
London small business boss blasts Barclays over coronavirus loan scheme May 5, 2020 Small businesses are at risk of collapse due to stringent eligibility rules for emergency coronavirus loans, the boss of a London marketing agency rejected for a loan has warned. Richard Cox, co-founder of The Village Communications, accused banks of a “complete lack of interest” in helping small firms that were struggling to stay afloat during [...]
Rishi Sunak considers cutting furlough pay to 60 per cent of wages May 5, 2020 As part of a review of the job retention scheme, the government is reportedly considering cutting the 80 per cent wage subsidy to 60 per cent for furloughed staff. The job retention scheme sees the government pay 80 per cent of wages, up to £2,500 a month, to 6.3m furloughed workers. However, chancellor Rishi Sunak [...]
More than 100,000 UK firms apply for ‘bounce back loans’ on first day May 5, 2020 UK banks have reported huge demand for “bounce back loans” on the first day of the new coronavirus lending scheme yesterday, with more than 100,000 of Britain’s smallest businesses applying by this afternoon. The bounce back loan scheme is the latest coronavirus support package for UK firms. Launched yesterday, it offers the UK’s smallest companies [...]
Rishi Sunak: No ‘cliff edge’ to job retention scheme May 5, 2020 Rishi Sunak has moved to assure people that “there will be no cliff edge” to the government’s job retention scheme, signalling that it could be extended past June for some workers. Sunak last night said he was “working to figure out the most effective way to wind down the scheme”, which is paying the wages [...]
Lloyds boss: Coronavirus business loan scheme was ‘painful’ and ‘flawed’ when launched May 4, 2020 The launch of the government’s coronavirus business loan scheme was “painful” and “flawed”, according to one of the top bosses of Lloyds Bank. David Oldfield, group director and chief executive of commercial banking at Lloyds, said today that the government’s emergency loan scheme was “cumbersome and onerous” when it launched. He added that he still [...]