Letters: Festive cheer in short supply
[Re:New virus rules pass, yesterday]
For many small businesses, the run up to Christmas was to be the saving grace of 2021. Even before Omicron arrived, that just didn’t turn out to be the case, with supply chain issues, fuel and energy costs, finance costs and delays across sectors leading to a big mountain to overcome.
Despite many doing all they can to tackle a challenging winter- getting organised early, pivoting to add on new routes to market and revenue streams – hope of recovery is fading and we urgently need to start looking at the big programmes of support once more.
It will not be enough now to ease cash flow with delayed tax, utility and rent payments, though this is sorely needed, and needed today. We need to delay finance repayments so the Bounce Back Loans support from previous lockdowns does not now become the albatross around the neck of the small business rather than the saviour was set up to be.
Injecting cash into key sectors like retail, hospitality and manufacturing will be essential for survival.
We need to see local authority grants coming back, and sadly we will need to see some version of the furlough scheme coming back too. Small businesses are the beating heart of the economy and communities. We cannot recover without them.
We cannot wait another week to step up support for them or we will start to lose some of the fundamental building blocks of our society.
Michelle Ovens