Monthly Archives: June 2020

Hot Business News Today

20% of small businesses can’t reopen with social distancing in place

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Social distancing rules are stopping one in five small businesses from reopening post lockdown.
A substantial 5.7m businesses closed at the height of the pandemic and a third are still shut. From those, one in five can’t reopen with the existing two-metre rule in place and those that can will be facing significant bills, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). A quarter expect to be forking out over £1,000 to meet the social distancing guidelines.
>See also: What is the average cost of fitting out my shop for coronavirus?
The FSB is calling on the chancellor to make some changes to help these small businesses, to boost the economy and to save jobs. One such measure is vouchers that will cover the cost of making workplaces safe. Others include tax cuts, better infrastructure and flexible repayments for businesses that incurred debt during lockdown. It’s being suggested that debt should be repaid in a student loan-style scheme.
On top of that, moves like cutting National Insurance would help employers bring staff back after furlough and contributing towards apprenticeship and training costs would encourage new hires.
FSB chairman, Mike Cherry, said: “Millions of small firms and sole traders

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Hot Business News Today

Small businesses blindsided by Growth Street demanding its money back

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Dozens of small businesses that borrowed money from peer-to-peer lending platform Growth Street have been told they must repay their loans.
Growth Street, which has lent £17.5m of investors’ money to 116 small businesses affected, is exiting the peer-to-peer market, giving them just three months’ notice to repay their debts.
The average amount owed is £148,122, with London and the South East accounting for 41 per cent of all borrowing, according to SME financier Rangewell.
>See also: HSBC handling of bounce-back loans branded ‘shambles’ by businesses
Loans repaid will be redistributed to Growth Street’s peer-to-peer investors in quarterly instalments, with any losses shared equally.
Astonishingly, not one of the affected businesses has missed a loan repayment to date.
A letter sent by Growth Street to borrowers, seen by the Times, concedes that the wind-down is “likely to be disruptive to your business”.
Back in March, Growth Street’s peer-to-peer investors panicked because of Covid-19 and extracted their cash from high-risk lending to small businesses as fast as possible. To try and stop the haemorrhage the investor stampede for the exit, Growth Street initiated a “liquidity event”, telling small business borrowers they had to repay their loans within three months.
>See also: 20%

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