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Small businesses facing 'financial cliff edge'

Government
Will Payne
5 July 2021

Businesses most affected by the pandemic "face a crisis" as banks start to ask for loan repayments and business rates resume, according to the Financial Times (FT). 

It comes as consumers rein in discretionary spending as the cost of living soars

It comes at the same time as furlough support begins to wind down, which described as "short-sighted" by Abta chief Mark Tanzer last week.

More than £75 billion has been borrowed by businesses throughout the pandemic through Covid loan schemes, the majority coming in the form of bounce back loans taken up by around 1.5 million firms.

The UK government has, in recent weeks, disclosed the names of "tens of thousands" of businesses with new debt to an EU website, which the FT said owed to the union’s rules on disclosing state aid.