Economy to take two years to bounce back – business news 9 February 2021.
James Salmon, Operations Director.
The economy to take two years to bounce back, UK consumer spending slumps, warnings against tax rises , covid-19, market and other business news.
Here are CPA we want to share the business news stories we have seen that we think will affect our members and readers. Many of us are busy fighting to protect our businesses and therefore might have missed some of the news that could impact small businesses, their owners and those that sell on credit.
Economy to take two years to bounce back
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has warned that the economy will take another two years to bounce back from the pandemic.
The think-tank said that GDP would expand by only 3.4% in 2021, down from an earlier forecast of 5.9%.
It blamed “uncertainty about the path of the virus and the effectiveness of vaccines against strains.” Hande Kucuk, a deputy director at the institute, said that by 2025 the economy would still be about 6% lower than it would have been had COVID-19 never hit.
The NIESR added that people would hold on to their savings because of fears about the economic outlook. Meanwhile, unemployment would rise as the job retention scheme ends. The jobless rate is expected to hit 7.5%, or 2.5m.
UK consumer spending slumps during latest lock-down
Consumer spending fell in January at the fastest rate in seven months, according to Barclaycard. Overall consumer spending shrank by 16.3% in year-on-year terms last month – much sharper than the 1.9% fall in November. Raheel Ahmed, head of consumer products at Barclays, said: “As the impact of the latest lock-down start to takes its toll, we’ve seen particular sectors struggle, as physical premises across the UK were forced to close.” Spending in supermarkets was up 17% while online spending rose 73% compared with January last year.
Entrepreneurs will flee Britain if CGT rises
Ocado CEO Tim Steiner has warned the Chancellor that hiking capital gains tax will lead to entrepreneurs selling their businesses or fleeing the country. “If you start a business and there’s a 20% capital gains tax regime, if capital gains tax moves to 45%, you’ve got to make an extra 45% increase in the value before you’re going to end up with the same amount of money,” he said at an event organised by the Centre for Policy Studies, a centre-right think tank. He continued: “We need to encourage people to come to the UK, we need to encourage people to stay in the UK and we need to encourage people to grow big businesses in the UK.”
Chancellor warned against hiking taxes too early
Rishi Sunak has been urged by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research not to raise taxes too early or he’ll risk undermining the economic recovery. Although increases in income tax, which is among the preferred tax rises, should wait until the country has stabilised, they should be gradual; but they are justified the NIESR said, and preferable to cuts to investment or spending on social care and education.
Boohoo to buy Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis brands for £25m
Boohoo has agreed to buy Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis out of administration, marking the final stage in the break-up of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group. The £25.2m deal to buy the three remaining brands out of administration does not include any of their 214 UK stores, according to administrators from Deloitte, putting about 2,450 jobs at risk. Approximately 260 jobs will be moving with the brands to Boohoo, mainly head office functions such as brand design, buying and merchandising, and the digital part of the business. It comes days after rival internet fashion firm Asos snapped up the Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge brands, but not its shops, triggering 2,500 job losses.
Covid-19 general news
There were 14,104 new cases in the UK yesterday (total 3.96m) with 333 more deaths (total 113k).
Globally 312,429 new cases brought the total to 106.4 million with 2,325,831 deaths.
134.6m vaccine does have now been given worldwide.
Cabinet ministers have sought to reassure the public over the AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine which is getting only limited clearance in the EU, Greece, Switzerland and South Africa and is reportedly not as effective against the South African mutation.
The Governments ’s plan for “surge testing” to detect new variants of covid is unlikely to work unless it is done on a larger scale. Mike Tildesley, an academic at the University of Warwick who advises Boris Johnson’s government on pandemic modeling, said authorities should “cast their net slightly wider” to pick up cases and make sure people with the virus are staying home.
All travelers entering the UK will be required to take two coronavirus tests while quarantining in an attempt to prevent variants entering the country. Arrivals are expected to be required to get a test on days two and eight of their 10-day quarantine period. The Department of Health said the move would provide a “further level of protection”, enabling authorities to track new cases more effectively.
Jerome Kim, director general of the International Vaccine Institute said the rollout of vaccines across the globe should accelerate after a slow start – “It’s always difficult to look at the information or data in the very early time periods,”, when asked about projections that it will take seven years to end the pandemic. “In the U.S. it started very slow, and it took awhile to ramp up to 1 million to 1.5 million doses a day, and it’s going to be like that in many countries around the world,” he said. “The infrastructure needs to adapt to vaccination.” “we’re going to see the kinds of rates of vaccination we need to see in order to have at least 60% of people vaccinated by the end of 2022.”
A team of scientists part of a World Health Organization-sponsored mission probing the origins of the coronavirus are due to hold a press conference later today in the Chinese city of Wuhan to talk about their findings.
CanSino Biologics Inc.’s experimental coronavirus vaccine demonstrated an efficacy rate of 66% at preventing symptomatic cases, making it the latest candidate to show some protection against Covid-19. It is also 90.98% effective in preventing severe disease.
Markets.
Yesterday the FTSE 100 closed at up 0.5% at 6523.53. Overnight, the S&P 500 rose 0.74% and the NASDAQ rose 0.95%. Asian stocks followed the lead this morning.
UK banks continued to bounce back, with NatWest up 2.25p at 172.6p and Standard Chartered up 9.3p at 457.6p with market commentators pointing to recent gains in US bond yields.
Recent IPOs continued to rally, Dr Martens jumped 17.6p to 507.6p on continued investor enthusiasm. Moonpig was also ahead at 425p.
The US Dollar’s selloff finally took off overnight as US stocks were boosted further to new record highs on reflation trade and vaccine optimism
Sterling is at 1.141 Euros and 1.378 US Dollars.
Brent Crude is touching eleven month highs on rising optimism and is at $61.11 and Gold is at $1840.5.
Tesla has invested $1.5bn in bitcoin helping the cryptocurrency rise to a record $48,000 and are now $47,000 per coin. The electric-car manufacturer led by Elon Musk also plans to accept bitcoin as payment for its vehicles.
Gender pension cap causing mortgage crisis for older borrowers
New research from Responsible Life, an equity release provider, has found that a mortgage retirement crisis could be brewing because baby boomer couples applying for a mortgage have a gender pension gap seven times the national average. The difference between pension income for men and women stands at 270% among retired couples applying for a mortgage, compared with a national average of 40%. Steve Wilkie of Responsible Life said the disparity could explain the low uptake of “retirement interest-only” mortgages. The Pensions Policy Institute found that there were 50% more women than men approaching retirement without any private pension savings. The think-tank said women taking time away from work to look after family was historically the biggest contributor to the pension gap.
Covid set to shave as much as £60bn from corporate pension costs
New analysis from XPS Pensions has suggested that the cost to companies of “final salary” pension schemes could fall by as much as £60bn because of the impact of COVID-19.
Don’t let Covid-19 bust your business!
It will if your cash flow dries up, either sooner or later.
The Credit Protection Association (CPA) has been assisting thousands of UK businesses to get paid since 1914. We have seen many financial crises, this one will be particularly deadly for suppliers for sometime to come.
CPA eases cash from tardy debtors – Efficiently, Effectively, Economically and Ethically. Above all tactfully, because maintenance of goodwill is paramount.
To meet the needs of creditors in the current crisis, we have designed a “critical care” package especially tailored for the situation.
- The annual package costs start at very low rates
- A minimum performance warranty is provided
- Several complimentary services included
Clients instruct CPA on-line via their PC or phone, completely user-friendly. Your late paying customers are told to pay you direct (not to us).
A very recent report shows a 23% increase in the number of unpaid invoices since March 11th THIS YEAR – are you getting a build-up of late payers?
Right now, overdue accounts must be a concern and CPA has a great track record of encouraging slow-payers to pay their suppliers quickly.
It takes less than 17 minutes to see how you would benefit, do you have the time now?
No face-to-face meeting required – just call Peter Uwins, CPA’s National Sales Manager, on 020 8846 0000 (business hours) or email nsm@cpa.co.uk today.
When you see your money come in, you will be so glad you used CPA.
Do you sell on credit?
With pressures on the cash flow it is essential that you stay on top of the credit limits you grant customers and watch carefully for any late payments.
Those customers will look for the easiest option to boost their cash-flow. Don’t let it be you.
You can’t just assume your customers can and will pay you eventually, no matter how big their name is.
It is essential to have credit management systems in place to monitor and check your customers credit worthiness.
It is also best practice to use a trusted third party like CPA to make sure you are paid on time by customers, no matter how good a name they have.
About CPA
The Credit Protection Association can help!
Formed in 1914, CPA has been providing credit management services to SMEs for over 100 years.
At the Credit Protection Association, we provide first class credit information that can help you avoid being over extended to customers who are at risk. Our monitoring service can flag up warning signs long before the end, giving you the chance to adjust and reduce your exposure. We provide recommended credit limits and credit scores on a traffic light system and can help you set appropriate credit policies for your customers.
We regularly publish lists of the latest insolvencies but by then it is too late. Our credit reports however predict approximately 96% of company insolvencies long before they arrive.
Companies in trouble usually have very bad cash flow and they try to deal with it by delaying payment to their suppliers, increasing your exposure to them.
If you supply on credit, help us help you identify the risks.
Why use a third party collector?
As a third party collector, we can also get your payments prioritised over those who are not as hot on collections. When your customer receives a letter from the Credit Protection Association regarding their outstanding account, they are going to want to get that resolved as a priority. Our overdue account recovery service can get your unpaid invoices to the top of their “to do” list and get your invoice paid.
Over the years we have collected billions in overdue invoices for our customers.
Our debt recovery and credit management services give our members the financial freedom needed to grow and prosper, while our new Late Payment Compensation department could unlock hidden potential and offer the compensation needed to springboard your business to success.
You might be hesitant about contacting a debt collection agency. What are they going to be like?
Can they help your particular type of business?
There is no need for concern. CPA are courteous, helpful and very probably have had direct experience of working with your type of business.
Debt collection agencies are not all alike.
Success lies in both recovering money and keeping customers happy. The Credit Protection Association was founded in 1914 and has helped tens of thousands of UK businesses to collect outstanding payments and reduce the risk of incurring bad debt. We believe that creditors deserve to be paid for the work or goods they have supplied but we fully understand the need to maintain
the best possible relationship with customers!
At The Credit Protection Association, we provide solutions, advice and back-up in all areas relating to the supply of services or goods on account. Client-members receive everything they need from a single source to reduce debtor days and write-offs.
The Credit Protection Association has helped has assisted tens of thousands of UK businesses with their credit control requirements, since the First World War.
We are polite, firm and efficient when it comes to recovering outstanding debt.
“We have used CPA for a number of years now. The website is easy to navigate around with lots of helpful reports. The staff are always at hand and very friendly. CPA has helped us reduce our debt over the years and keep track of potential issues with our customers.”
~ CPA client in Buckinghamshire
“The service from CPA has proved to be everything that you said it would be. We have already seen a huge benefit. We have had a number of overdue accounts paid promptly and directly to us. It is also a huge weight off our mind to know that once we have passed an overdue payment over to you, you take care of everything whilst keeping us informed.
~ Credit Controller client in Warrington
The Credit Protection Association – Prompting Punctual Payments – Ethical, Effective, Efficient, Economical collections
Ready to speak to an advisor?
For help or advice on credit management, entirely without obligation.
Call us today
0330 053 9263
CPA is passionate about late payment
The Credit Protection Association has been protecting smaller firms against poor payment practices for over 100 years.
We are extremely passionate about breaking the late payment culture that holds back the UK economy and threatens many SMEs, with cash flow difficulties being the single biggest killer of Britain’s small businesses.
If you were regularly paid late we can help. Those former customers used you to boost their own cashflow, regularly paying you late.
As a result you had extra costs, you had the distraction of having to chase payment, you had opportunity costs because your capital was tied up in their late invoices.
Under little used legislation, you are entitled to compensation for those late payments.
You put up with the PAIN – now claim the GAIN!
Now you can boost your own cash-flow.
CPA can help unearth the those hidden treasures.
We have the technology to reveal the compensation you are due and we have the extensive experience and expertise to then turn those claims into cash.
Did you know that your business is entitled to a minimum of £40 for every commercial invoice paid late to you over the past 6 years?
How many of your invoices are paid late each month – 20, 50, 100 or more?
At £40 per invoice that’s claim of £57,600, £144,000, £288,000 plus interest. The more invoices the bigger the claim!
At £100 per invoice it’s £144,000, £360,000, £720,000 plus interest.
For over 20 years, CPA has calculated and recovered Late Payment Compensation on behalf of Clients!
Yes, CPA can help you boost your business cash-flow.
Don’t let your bankers control you, contact CPA today.
The Credit Protection Association – Prompting Punctual Payments – Ethical, Effective, Efficient, Economical collections.
Do you realise you could be sitting on a fortune?
Late payments often result in a cash flow crunch and leave SMEs in need of a cash injection.
If you sold B2B on credit then there may be a hidden source of capital you can call on.
If you fancy an extra bit of extra cash in your business, rather than jumping through hoops with your bank, you could look to uncover the resources from an unexpected source within your own business.
Not many are aware but there could be a hidden fortune within your business, sitting there, just waiting to be uncovered and released.
We can help you uncover the pile of gold, you didn’t even know you were sitting on.
If you trade with other businesses and were often paid late then you could be entitled to significant compensation.
Under little known and under-utilised legislation your business could be due huge amounts in compensation that you didn’t even know about.
Let’s be clear – this is not a way to weaken any customer relationships you value. It is one that identifies who’s been paying late and then recover the potentially significant sums in compensation using Late Payment Legislation from businesses where the relationship has already ended.
You can pick and choose who you want us to follow up – but once we’ve agreed which companies you’d like to pursue compensation from it’s a fast process and there’s no financial outlay to you whatsoever. My team at CPA put its expertise to work to recover the compensation due and fight late payment culture.
That compensation could provide the cash boost your business needed.
But don’t delay, that compensation evaporates if not claimed within six years of the late payment.
How can CPA help?
CPA has developed a unique technology to dig into your accounting records and discover the cash injection you are due by means of compensation. The software does all the hard work. Our software interacts over the cloud with over 300 different software packages, working directly with your accounts package, just so long as it’s stored on a computer.
We recognise that most companies do not have the resources to spend time on the identification and calculation of Late Payment Compensation. Our service can produce an Analyses within just a few days with (usually) less than 30 mins of co-operation from our clients. We work directly with over 300 accounting packages but can also work with bespoke accounts packages. Indeed, speed is essential as the oldest invoices may fall foul of the 6-year time limit.
Once the Sales Ledger Analyses is made available to clients, all that is required is that management decide which commercially sensitive ex-customers to remove from the list and return it to us.
CPA then uses its years of collection experience to explain and recover the Late Payment Compensation Claims. Clients do not handle any part of the recovery process as our team will take all communications from the companies against who the claims has been made. Often, it’s simply a case of explaining the legislation, sometimes we have to go all the way and enforce the legislation through the courts.
The result is that we are realising clients’ claims worth tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of pounds which, of course, is pure net profit. You may also be among the recipients of “hundreds of thousands of pounds” should you elect to take advantage of our services.
We do the work, you receive the cash.
If you have supplied goods and services to businesses on credit and were regularly paid late then you could be due significant sums in late payment compensation.
We are talking to companies and unearthing claims in the hundreds of thousands from former business customers who paid them late. Large business customers who abused their power to inflict unfair and sometimes illegal payment practices.
We are helping business owners who are looking to boost the returns from their business before they retire. We are helping businesses who have lost major clients after years of loyal service to get properly compensated for systematic late payment. We are helping companies that were looking to close down, who looked insolvent and finding that cash injection they need to avoid insolvency.
Those former clients who regularly paid you late can finally be made to pay.
Ready to speak to an advisor?
For help or advice on credit management, entirely without obligation.
Call us today
0330 053 9263
The Credit Protection Association is a credit management company established in 1914. If you supply goods or services on credit then we can help you!
The Credit Protection Association – Prompting Punctual Payments – Ethical, Effective, Efficient, Economical collections.
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The Credit Protection Association – Prompting Punctual Payments – Ethical, Effective, Efficient, Economical collections.