Businesses in Dorset have benefited from over half a billion pounds in emergency support under the UK’s two biggest government Covid loan schemes.
We take a closer look at how much has been loaned to local Dorset businesses, as well as what the government is doing to secure future support.
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
Across the county, 14,215 businesses claimed nearly £540 million in business bounce back loans and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans, allowing them to stay solvent and operational during the last year of lockdowns and restrictions.
The business bounce back loans scheme was designed to offer loans of up to £50,000 for up to six years; with businesses able to borrow up to 25% of their annual turnover.
The Coronavirus Business Interruption loan scheme offered similarly impacted businesses up to £5m of funding in the form of loans, invoice finance, overdrafts and asset finance, for any business with a turnover of £45m or under.
Bournemouth and Poole business owners have praised the loans that have allowed them to safeguard jobs, pay suppliers, meet fixed costs and continue to keep their operation solvent whilst subject to restrictions. Many Doreset businesses have also used the loans to shore up their reserves in case of further challenges before normal trading resumes.
A closer look at the figures revealed that between the two government funding schemes:
- 2,302 businesses in Bournemouth West were awarded nearly £95 million
- 1,863 businesses in Bournemouth East received £58 million
- 2,045 business in Poole were awarded £85 million
- 1,437 businesses in North Poole and Mid Dorset received £51 million
- 1,239 businesses in South Dorset took £41 million of funding
- 1,767 businesses in North Dorset were paid £72 million in loans
- 1,694 businesses in Christchurch received £71 million
- 1,614 businesses in the New Forest West received £71 million
This means that over 116,000 businesses across the South West were given over £4.8 billion in grant funding.
British Business Bank CEO, Catherine Lewis La Torre, said that a key objective of the British Business Bank was to improve access to finance for small businesses across the regions; reducing imbalances where they existed. She added that the Bank had been pleased to see the government loan schemes continuing to help smaller South West businesses in obtaining the finance they needed to support their future plans and to keep trading in the immediate future.
Current Lockdown Grants Insufficient to meet Rising Costs
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary said that the figures showed how the figures demonstrated the government’s commitment to make good on its promise to support British businesses across the country. He added that tough times were still ahead, but that the government would continue to offer all necessary support needed to keep businesses afloat and to protect jobs so that the UK could restart its economy after the pandemic and build back better once Covid restrictions were eased for good.
In the meantime, the Federation of Small Businesses in Dorset has written to Rishi Sunak to call for a structured support plan for impacted small businesses who are struggling with the latest wave of Covid restrictions.
The lobby group said that the current wave of lockdown grants was smaller and insufficient to meet rising costs, especially after a year of impacted training. The letter called upon the Chancellor to continue its existing schemes of financial support until business disruption ended for good, and to then offer one-off cash grants, a revenue loss scheme, a directors income support scheme, help for the recently-self employed and an extension to the emergency loans scheme.
