13 minute read
Economy
Most firms are in a position to partially restart operations as lockdown restrictions are eased, according to the latest British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Coronavirus Business Impact Tracker.
However, the research also revealed that one in ten firms cannot carry out government guidance and restart operations safely, mainly due to difficulties in implementing social distancing.
The poll, which serves as a barometer of the pandemic’s impact on businesses and the effectiveness of government support measures, received 609 responses.
Encouragingly, the majority of respondents (83%) reported high levels of awareness of the government’s new workplace guidance as sectors of the economy begin to reopen gradually.
Just over a third (37%) of respondents said they could fully restart operations by implementing the government guidance, while 45% said they could do so partially. However, due to social distancing guidelines, it is likely that many firms will see a reduction in demand and will not be able to restart at full capacity.
The majority of employers (around 70%) have furloughed a proportion of their workforce. Cashpoor firms, with less than three months’ cash in reserve, remain more likely to furlough staff.
The number of respondents that have submitted a claim to HMRC and received payment from the government’s Job Retention Scheme is around 85% – a significant increase from the 73% recorded in the last BCC tracker survey.
The furlough scheme continues to prevent firms from having to make redundancies, with very few respondents making any. Employers welcomed the extension of the furlough scheme in some form until the end of October.
The survey also highlights encouraging take-up of the government’s Bounce Back Loan Scheme, with more than half (54%) of respondents who attempted to secure a loan reporting success. This is an increase on the 26% recorded in the last BCC survey.
Just over a third (38%) were awaiting a decision on a loan, a decrease on the 58% noted in the previous poll.
Commenting on the results, BCC director general Dr Adam Marshall said: “While businesses have welcomed the publication of official guidance on how they can reopen premises and restart operations, some sectors still require greater clarity from the government on when and how they will be allowed to do so. This is particularly the case for hospitality and leisure companies, which will not reopen before July at the earliest. “Companies at all levels of readiness to restart, of all sizes, and in every part of the UK will need sustained government support as they navigate the “new normal” with reduced demand and restrictions still in place. Many support schemes will need to be adapted and updated, but must not be withdrawn prematurely.
“HMRC and the Treasury deserve enormous credit for the successful rolling out of the Job Retention Scheme, which is helping huge numbers of businesses to protect livelihoods.
“But the message from firms on the ground is clear: the furlough scheme must become more flexible if it is to help companies bring employees back to work successfully. Furlough has helped businesses to avoid millions of immediate redundancies – and now must be adapted to help firms keep as many of these jobs as possible as they restructure and reconfigure post-lockdown.
“Our results show that the Bounce Back Loan Scheme is continuing its encouraging start. Yet there are many firms out there who are not in a position to take on debt, so the government must consider further expansion of grant schemes to ensure that as many businesses as possible get access to the support they need.”
Student Nurses to Receive £5,000 Non
Repayable Government Funding
Kingston College announced that from September 2020, new and continuing degree-level students studying nursing, midwifery and many allied health subjects will receive a non-repayable and non-means tested Government grant of £5,000 per year to help with living costs.
The Government will also be making available a further £3,000 per year to eligible students studying specialist disciplines, such as mental health nursing, which struggle to recruit students, or in areas of the country that have seen a decrease in student applications. There will also be more help for those paying for childcare.
The grant will be in addition to existing student support. Funding will be offered to existing students as well as new entrants. Students will still have to pay tuition fees of £9,250, though they can obviously still access tuition and maintenance loans from the Student Loans Company.
Access Courses
If you are over 19, and interested in a career in this field but don’t have the qualifications to study a degree, then you could consider taking an Access to HE Diploma. Kingston College offers a wide range of Access to HE Diplomas, including Nursing, Midwifery, Paramedic Science and Science.
Access diplomas are one year, full time or part time and are designed to fit around your lifestyle. They are for adults aged 19+ who have been out of full time education for some time and can provide a progression route to undergraduate study at college or university. If you go on to complete an undergraduate programme, the Access to HE loan will not have to be repaid – it is written off!
Former student, Assumpta Namazzi, gained a Triple Distinction in her BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care. Assumpta, who is now a first year student at Swansea University studying for a BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing, will benefit from the additional financial support. She says: “Money was always a concern as I was going to be living away from home. Receiving a non-repayable Government grant will make such a huge difference to my university life. I work part-time as a healthcare support worker for the Swansea Bay University Health Board Hospital in order to supplement my income so that I can afford my accommodation and fund all that I need. I will not have to work every weekend and can now instead spend more time completing assignments. I will be so grateful to graduate without any additional student debts and without having to rely on my parents to pay for it all.”
The Psychology of Retirement
Holland Hahn & Wills have adapted smoothly to working from home, and have used the time to connect with clients remotely and publish some important content. The first piece is a Whitepaper on the Psychology of Retirement – a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the mindset you need in order to make the most of your retirement. You can download your copy here:
www.hhw-uk.com/whitepaper
The second piece is an editable guide to organising your financial affairs, and is an essential planning tool to help families in the event of bereavement – we hope this will be useful, and can be downloaded here:
www.hhw-uk.com/organising-your-affairs.
In addition to this, HHW have been running online social events and webinars for clients. The most recent one was on 18th June, and addressed how to understand and improve investor behaviour. It was free to attend, and there will be more in the future. Check out www.hhw-uk.com/events for information on all our future events.
If you or any of your family / friends are concerned about the financial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, or simply want a second opinion on your financial plan and future, please do not hesitate to contact us. We’d be happy to chat or zoom through concerns to see if we can help to bring peace of mind with a personal financial plan – you can reach us at
enquiry@hhw-uk.com.
Improving quality of life for homelessness and people in
housing crisis in the borough
Canadian and Portland Estates, owners of Riverside Walk, have been working closely with Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness (KCAH), alongside Kingston Council, on trying to resolve issues around homelessness.
KCAH aims to improve the quality of life of both people experiencing homelessness and people in housing crisis in the borough of Kingston. It is a caring organisation, valuing and respecting the dignity, independence and individuality of people experiencing homelessness and people in housing crisis. KCAH works closely with partners within in the borough.
KCAH operates a drop in advice and referral service 5 days a week and also offers rooms in their HMO’s for up to 47 people with a local connection to Kingston in its 12 rented houses for a period of up to two years. KCAH offer the tenant’s ongoing support with benefit claims and life skills such as budgeting and every tenant has a tailor-made Support Plan.
KCAH have remained an open and frontline service during the COVID pandemic and have led with the response from the Government of ‘everyone in’ for rough sleepers in the borough working alongside the Local Authority. The extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic has led to decisive action on homelessness that would have been almost impossible to envisage just months earlier. But obvious questions remain, not least how long is this temporary response going to last. It has been projected that the economic effects of coronavirus could throw another half a million people into homelessness. They have also been affected terribly by the COVID pandemic. During this time, it tragically led to the passing of Reverend Peter Holmes, founder of the JOEL project and a major supporter of KCAH, due to Coronavirus. It certainly has hit home how dangerous the virus remains and the continued need for vigilance.
In the past few months, we have donated £5,000 to help them when the pandemic hit. TK Maxx have also helped in the cause and we believe it is just one example of how the private sector can successfully collaborate with the voluntary sector. It is such a very challenging time for them and the homeless community, and regrettably, will remain so after this time.
Rightmove reports the busiest day of the year, with millions looking into moving. But what does that mean for the housing market since lockdown was eased? Pearson Hards explain the trends
and moves in the housing sector.
Since the lockdown started in March, we reported that the housing market was placed on hold. However, with the easing of restrictions in May, we are starting to see the first green shoots of the housing market coming back to life. But will the bounce back be what the property market is hoping for after a bad 2019 caused by Brexit and other political uncertainties?
The housing market has only been open for less than three weeks, but Rightmove has already reported its busiest day on record on Wednesday May 27. More than six millions visits to its listings were announced, meaning there had been an 18 per cent increase in comparison to the same Wednesday last year. These statistics suggest an optimism that the property market may not have suffered too badly from the Coronavirus pandemic and a new wave of transactions may be about to happen.
However, despite this optimism, the number of sales still remain significantly lower than last year. Estate agents are going to find it difficult to handle the vast amount of enquiries whilst also trying to deliver safe physical viewings which comply with the new social distancing measures. Celebrating
100 years in business
This year, Summers-Inman, have been running for 100 years. To celebrate our centenary year, Summers-Inman announced that they are working alongside the charity Together for Short Lives. Our partnership with this charity will help them to continue making a lifetime of difference for families caring for a seriously ill child. Each SummersInman office will be twinned with their local children’s hospice, so our fundraising will be supporting children and families in the communities where we live and work. Our local hospice is the Shooting Star Hospice (based in Guildford, and more locally, Hampton). Once sociallydistancing measured are eased, we hope to continue with our fundraising, and may be calling upon you to join us for a sponsored walk or tennis tournament – even if it’s just to cheer the participants on, with a cocktail in hand! As travel restrictions will remain prominent for quite some time, second-home buyers are now setting their sights on seaside towns, maybe triggered by people’s priorities starting to shift. With more people potentially working from home for the foreseeable future people are also needing greater space at home. Whether this will be a short-term trend or a change in how buyers are going to be behaving, will show within time.
This would be a welcome relief to the housing market which has suffered in the last year. We have already started to receive some new enquiries since the easing of the restrictions. However, Partners in our residential conveyancing team, Hatice Mustafa and Jonathan Throp, still believe that any ‘bounce’ is likely to be negatively impacted by the effect of the many redundancies that have unfortunately occurred due to Covid-19. Nonetheless, we still remain hopeful and are willing to
Jonathan Throp Hatice Mustafa
provide the best expertise during these difficult times. We have been working closely with Local Authorities and NHS Trusts to ensure that safety is at the fore of every project, as well as maintaining compliance with ever-changing legislation. With the Directors keeping informed of Covid-19 related updates on a daily basis, and transitioning staff to remote-working, we have been able to continue delivering our projects with ongoing reviews of safety measures and best practice. This work has included supplying urgent MRI and CT scanners to hospitals both locally around London and England, as well as making use of schools being unoccupied and completing construction works at an accelerated rate.
IQ in IT - Keeping businesses online in a global pandemic
And why security is key to the “new norm”
We started preparing our clients for the possibility of a lockdown in February. Back then, a potential lockdown was not seen as imminent or even likely for the UK. We reviewed our clients’ existing business continuity plans and created a pandemic strategy. We knew we would have to keep their businesses operating by moving their entire work forces home.
Then suddenly lockdown across the UK became a reality and we had to move whole companies to remote working over a single weekend. This brought about some huge logistical and technical challenges for our team. Like our clients, we also had to adapt our business practises to deliver to all our clients quickly but with security at the forefront of everything. We needed to get out to employees’ homes, deliver laptops and other hardware, then login to set up WIFI, install software and systems (even online school for one client) remotely. But most importantly it had to be secure and safe for our clients.
Other businesses might not have had a plan or support to implement one. Many employees will have switched to using their personal computers out of necessity or convenience. Most of these devices will not have the right level of security for a business, creating potentially increased threats to corporate security. Since lockdown started, there has been a huge increase in compromised email accounts, attacks via ransomware and malware, invoice and payment fraud, data breaches and more. Sadly, fraudsters are active, and you must take steps to protect your business. If you rushed to get everyone online at home, take the time now to check the security on the devices they are using. Make sure your work data is being securely backed up, revisit your business continuity plan and make sure you are secure
during this pandemic and beyond. IQinIT Managing Director Katerina Damcova says: “This shift in working from home is here to stay, the accelerated change was long overdue and many of our clients are already planning to keep this as a standard practice. This means changing and adapting the way we support our clients also, and we have learned that we can do this and do it well. We are embracing the change, you can too as long as it’s secure!”
For help with your cyber security and other IT queries speak to Kat directly on 0330 1224 420 or email Katerina@IQinIT.uk
Read more @ https://iqinit.uk/cybersecurity-business-beyond-pandemic/
