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BGF pitches £15bn growth fund for struggling businesses post-coronavirus

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Business Growth Fund is proposing a £15bn growth fund to help businesses struggling under the weight of coronavirus emergency loan debt.
Stephen Welton, chief executive of Business Growth Fund, is talking to investors, the Government and his banking shareholders about the new fund. BGF’s shareholders include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS.
Welton told the Financial Times that the UK faces a more devastating economic crash than the Great Recession of 2008, warning of “a totally unsustainable debt mountain” following the Government’s emergency coronavirus lending schemes.
Like others, Welton believes that many businesses will be crushed by this debt mountain, forcing them into bankruptcy and making a lot of people redundant.
Target viable businesses
The BGF fund would specifically target viable businesses that have borrowed money from the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) but cannot repay it, because of the complete absence of customers.
Like the Future Fund, any BGF investment would have to be matched by private investors, which could include pension funds. Welton said that he had been talking to a couple of institutions about them coming on board. It has long been an ambition of his to have pension funds diversify into supporting fast-growth British

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Hot Business News Today

How to do a coronavirus risk assessment on your small business premises

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
As businesses start to reopen, the safety of your staff, customers and your suppliers is a priority. One of the first areas to address is your coronavirus risk assessment.
The government has published a series of eight guides to help businesses to reopen across key sectors.
We’ll delve deeper into how you conduct your own risk assessment to ensure that your business is COVID-19 secure.
When should I be doing a coronavirus risk assessment?
If you’re already trading, you need to do it now to prove that you’re working safely. Those who have more time would be wise to carry one out now too.
You have an obligation under Section 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to do a standard risk assessment. The government recommend that you take out a risk assessment in line with Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance.
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the minimum you must do is:

Identify what could cause injury or illness in your business (hazards)
Decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how seriously (the risk)
Take action to eliminate the hazard, or if this isn’t possible, control

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