The British government’s present package of coronavirus support measures is not enough, a business group said as it urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to set out a plan for long-term, comprehensive support.
“Businesses across the country, and across sectors, are on their knees and many will be spending Christmas making serious decisions about their future,” Ruby McGregor-Smith, president of the British Chambers of Commerce, said in a December 21 letter to Johnson.
Separately, Anneliese Dodds, Labour’s shadow chancellor, called on Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to make a public statement on economic support measures.
Dodds noted in a December 21 release that Johnson announced a tightening of public health restrictions for London and the south east of England on December 19, and that France closed its U.K. border to passengers and accompanied freight late on December 20 because of concerns over a new variant of coronavirus. “Sunak must speak to the British people and set out what the government plans to do to support businesses and workers through the challenges ahead,” she said.
More than 2,800 lorry drivers were stuck in Kent on December 22 waiting to cross the English Channel, BBC News reported, and the Road Haulage Association expressed concerns for their welfare. For some hauliers facing an uncertain future, delivering Christmas goods to Europe “will have been a last-ditch attempt to save their businesses,” the association said.
French officials said that reopening the border to allow freight crossings depended on a system “to ensure that truck drivers did not spread the new coronavirus variant across the continent,” the Financial Times reported.
The devolved administrations have also announced tougher restrictions. The Welsh government said it was bringing forward “alert level four” restrictions for Wales, in line with the measures for London, and Scotland and Northern Ireland are set to begin lockdowns on December 26.
Firms cannot be expected to keep up with “constantly shifting goalposts,” McGregor-Smith’s letter said in a reference to frequent changes to restrictions in recent months. “Firms urgently need greater clarity, certainty, and stability. While they understand that the nature of the pandemic means that things can change quickly, they need a much clearer view of the road ahead, rather than handbrake turn after handbrake turn,” she added.
Leisure and hospitality businesses are “by no means” the only sectors in trouble, and support must be provided throughout their supply chains and across the economy, McGregor-Smith argued. She called for an extension of business rates relief to all businesses whose ability to generate revenues is severely impaired; “more significant” grant support; an extension of VAT deferral to at least the end of 2021; and improved access to government lending schemes.
“Even at this late stage you have a chance to remedy a huge hole in the support offered, to owner-directors of limited companies, freelancers, and others who have fallen through the cracks. Take it,” McGregor-Smith said.
"Failure to act now will lead to many more businesses shutting up shop for good and will be a waste of the investment government has already made to keep firms afloat. We need businesses to survive and to be ready to power the recovery when the time comes. In short, supporting them now will pay dividends in the future,” McGregor-Smith added.
Many workers, including freelancers and entrepreneurs, “have not had a penny and are really struggling” as they continue to fall through gaps in government support, House of Commons Public Accounts Committee Chair Meg Hillier said on December 20.
HM Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs should investigate whether data resources across government could be used to “determine eligibility for currently excluded groups,” the committee said in its report on support for jobs.