Companies: Coronavirus

(asked on 8th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy what plans he has to support companies facing insolvency as a result of debt arising from the effects of the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 15th September 2020

The Government has provided a comprehensive package of support to help businesses that have been affected by Covid-19. This package includes the small business grants, the coronavirus loan schemes, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, as well as deferral of income tax payments.

The Government will continue to work closely with local authorities, businesses, and business representative organisations to understand the impact of Covid-19 on businesses. This will include consideration of how payments for deferred VAT and loan repayments will impact businesses from March 2021.

We are developing a consistent industry-wide approach to the collections and recoveries of Bounce Back loans. This will ensure that lenders understand the full range of support they can provide to borrowers struggling to repay their loans. The British Business Bank has created the online Finance Hub[1] which details potential types and sources of business finance and guidance.

Firms can access wide variety of government free support and advice online and in person on .gov.uk, the Business Support Helpline and the network of 38 Growth Hubs in England. The devolved administrations have their own business support service.

The Recovery Advice for Business scheme, supported by the government and hosted on the Enterprise Nation website[2], offers small firms access to free, one-to-one advice with an expert adviser to help them through the coronavirus pandemic and to prepare for long-term recovery.

In addition, Government has brought forward £5 billion of capital investment projects, supporting jobs and the overall economic recovery. £111million has been announced to triple the scale of traineeships, ensuring that more young people have access to high quality training needed for future jobs.

[1] https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/finance-hub/

[2] https://www.enterprisenation.com/freesupport/

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