New research suggests that 378,418 people in the Yorkshire and Humber region are potentially at risk of unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The figure, described as 鈥渟tark and worrying鈥 by report author and regional independent chartered accountancy practice Forrester Boyd, is 鈥渢he reality of what the 海角视频 could be facing鈥.
It has joined other members of the 海角视频200Group - a collection of lawyers and accountants 鈥 in writing to the Prime Minister and Chancellor or the Exchequer highlighting areas of support to try and mitigate the figure.
Crunching the figures at the Grimsby headquarters, Forrester Boyd said 31 per cent of the 1,793 SME businesses who participated in the research believe they could close permanently if the lockdown continues beyond June. Given there are 16.7 million people employed by SMEs according to the government鈥檚 own statistics released in 2019, this could result in more than 378,418 job losses in Yorkshire and Humber - and five million in total across the 海角视频.
Kevin Hopper, managing partner at Forrester Boyd and past chair of the North East Lincolnshire area council of Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce, said: 鈥淚t is good news that the Government has listened to some of the concerns from the business community, however, there are still some major gaps in the support that need to be addressed. Clearly one of the most important issues that the government needs to focus on is to rebuild the economy. SMEs, who account for a significant proportion of the 海角视频鈥檚 economy and workforce, need to be a priority.
鈥淲hilst the bounce back loan scheme will be a major relief for many of these businesses, for some it may be too little too late.鈥
Coronavirus support:
Three key areas of concern emerging from the analysis and now highlighted to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak include access to bank funding to preserve their business; help rebuilding their business once the pandemic eases and more support for the self-employed to tide them over.
Mr Hopper said: 鈥淚n our letter, we have called on the government to prioritise support for SMEs and in particular, we have highlighted measures that will help address SMEs current challenges.鈥
These include removing some of the administrative hurdles of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme; continued support for furloughed employees, rather than a hard end to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and refining the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme to ensure it is well targeted.
He added: 鈥淚n these unusual times we need to stay focused, protect the economy and save jobs. We are committed to doing our bit to support our clients by raising issues with the government on SMEs behalf and by collaborating with the government and others to achieve these goals.鈥
