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One in three East Midlands business leaders say lockdown has been “catastrophic” for trade

Despite that, our Great Big Business Lockdown Survey suggests East Midlands faring better than Ƶ as a whole

Loseby Lane, Leicester, is usually bustling(Image: Joe Giddens/PA Wire)

One in three East Midlands business leaders say the lockdown has been “catastrophic” for them, a new survey by Business Live has revealed.

Some 37.5 per cent of respondents said the lockdown at the end of March had had a massive impact on their operation, while a further 36.9 per cent said it had had a “negative impact”.

More than 28 per cent of those polled said their business had completely stopped trading when the lockdown came in.

Just 12.5 per cent of the region’s bosses said it has made little difference, while almost 10 per cent said it had actually created opportunities. Some 4.5 per cent said they had seen opportunities as a result of the upheaval.

The results of the Great Big Business Lockdown Survey come after the Office of National Statistics revealed that the Ƶ economy shrank by more than 20 per cent in April – an economic slump three times greater than the 2008 financial crisis.

It was also triple the previous record fall of 5.8 per cent – which came a month earlier in March, when the lockdown was imposed.

Nationally more than 2,700 people took part in the Business Live survey.

And the results suggest the impact of lockdown was less painful in the East Midlands than in the nation as a whole, Nationally 46.4 per cent of respondents said the lockdown had been “catastrophic” for them.