Member Article

Further support needed urgently to prevent additional unemployment in the North East

NEW research conducted in April shows that 134,078 people in the North East are at risk of unemployment. This is a stark and worrying number, but this is the reality of what the UK may be facing.

31% of the total 1,793 SME businesses who participated in the research believe they could close permanently if the lockdown continues beyond June. Given there are 16.7 million people employed by SMEs according to the government’s own statistics released in 2019, this could result in over 134,078 in the North East being made unemployed and 5million in total across the UK.

Commenting on these figures, Graham Purvis from Robson Laidler Accountants said: “This is not what anyone wants. Clearly therefore one of the most important issues that the government needs to focus on is to rebuild the economy. SMEs, who account for a significant proportion of the UK’s economy and workforce, need to be a priority.”

Together with the other member partners of the UK200Group, Robson Laidler has written to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak highlighting the 3 key areas of concern for SMEs that the research has identified:

1. Access to bank funding to preserve their business;
2. Help rebuilding their business once the pandemic eases; and
3. More support for the self-employed to tide them over.

In the letter, Robson Laidler has called on the government to prioritise support for SMEs and in particular, highlighted the following measures that will help address SMEs current challenges:

1. Removing some of the administrative hurdles of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
2. Continued support for furloughed employees, rather than a hard end to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
3. Refining the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme to ensure it is well targeted.

Concluding, Graham Purvis said; “In these unusual times we need to Stay Focused; Protect the Economy and Save Jobs. We are committed to doing our bit to support our clients by raising issues with the government on SMEs behalf and by collaborating with the government and others to achieve these goals.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Robson Laidler .