40% of SMEs will struggle to repay covid loan – business news 8 June 2021.
James Salmon, Operations Director.
40% of SMEs will struggle to repay covid loan, UK retailers report strong May but struggle to find staff, The City will remain “competitive and dynamic”, G7 moves to tap Amazon, Northern Ireland, house prices and more.
Nearly 40% of small businesses will struggle to repay Covid loan
A survey of small businesses by Mazuma Accountants found 39% believed they would struggle to meet repayments of the Government’s Bounce Back Loan Scheme when they start this month.
Lucy Cohen, co-founder of Mazuma, said many businesses had yet to get their recovery underway and fear that “the longer the current restrictions remain in place, the more difficult it will be for many already-stretched small businesses to generate the additional income that is needed to repay their bounce back loan.”
UK retailers report strong May
The British Retail Consortium said on Tuesday that total sales among its members last month were 10% higher last month than in May two years ago.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “Retail sales were buoyant in May thanks to the reopening of hospitality, coupled with the afterglow of non-essential retail’s own return.”
Paul Martin, head of retail at survey sponsor KPMG, commented: “The rain in May failed to dampen consumer demand and shoppers continued to return to the high street.”
Separately, Barclaycard said consumer spending was 7.6% higher than in May two years ago.
Spending at restaurants last month was 54% below its level two years ago, while spending at pubs and bars was 19% lower. However, this was an improvement from April when sales were down 74% and 67% respectively.
Retailers struggle to find enough staff
Retail is the latest sector to see a staffing shortage following a hiring crisis in hospitality that has slowed the recovery of pubs, bars and restaurants. One in three retail leaders is struggling to fill roles with fashion firms among those hit the hardest. Over 40% of smaller retailers have said that Brexit has made hiring harder, compared to 35% of larger retailers.
The City will remain “competitive and dynamic” – Sunak
In a call with bank bosses yesterday, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak vowed to protect the financial services industry against attempts by Brussels to steal its crown. Boris Johnson and the Governor of the Bank of England were also on the call which was described as upbeat by one person present. The call focused on the competitiveness of UK financial services post-Brexit as well as the country’s economic recovery following the pandemic. The FT reports that the prime minister called for improved links between the City and Downing Street with a spokesman later stating that the Government would “support innovation and the competitiveness of the UK financial services sector” as it adapts to life outside the single market.
G7 moves to tap Amazon in new global corporate tax plan
The OECD is proposing that the new G7 global tax rules should apply to large and profitable divisions of companies, ensuring that all the US tech giants are caught by the agreement.
The move follows suggestions that Amazon could avoid a new minimum tax rate as it typically has a profit margin in single figures. The new measures target companies with profit margins above a 10% threshold. Shares of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google-parent Alphabet were down between 0.4% and 0.7% yesterday following news of the deal, but analysts said the immediate market implications are likely to be minimal due to the volume of detail yet to ironed out and the likely resistance from smaller countries such as Ireland.
Meanwhile, OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann told BBC radio he did not agree with the characterisation that the US in particular would benefit from the deal. “I think you´ll find that there are a number of very large multinational U.S. companies that will end up paying more tax in countries around the world, where perhaps at the moment that is not the case,” he said.
Separately, the Chinese foreign ministry said yesterday that the Group of 20 leading economies should take a practical approach towards setting any global minimum corporate tax and handle the concerns of all parties.
Northern Ireland
The EU is said to be considering tougher retaliatory measures against the U.K. should post-Brexit obligations regarding Northern Ireland not be implemented. The two sides are due to hold talks on Wednesday aimed at finding solutions to prevent any further unrest in Northern Ireland. Brexit minister David Frost said the current situation over Northern Ireland is “unsustainable” and urged the EU to show a “common-sense” approach
House Prices
House Prices leapt another 9.5% in the year to May, boosted by the government’s stamp duty holiday which ends this month. The Halifax said prices rose by more than £22,000 to an average of £261,743. But it said buyer preferences are shifting “in anticipation of new, post-pandemic lifestyles”. “There’s greater demand for larger properties with more space,” said Halifax managing director Russell Galley.
Ocado
Ocado Group has lost a High Court fight with a council over the use of a storage and distribution centre near a primary school in north London after residents raised pollution concerns. Bosses had taken legal action against Islington Council over its reversal of approval for use of the site at Bush Industrial Estate in Tufnell Park. A judge on Monday dismissed Ocado’s claim for judicial review of a council decision.
Oil
Oil Prices jumped to a two-year high yesterday, rising above $72 a barrel, extending the recent rally supported by recovering demand and OPEC+ supply curbs, before giving up some of the gains as investors booked profits
Space Tourism
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and his brother and an auction winner will be aboard the first space-tourism flight of Blue Origin, Mr Bezos’s space company, which launches later this month. If all goes to plan, he will beat two other billionaires with their own rival ventures, Elon Musk and Richard Branson, in crossing the von Kármán line, where Earth’s atmosphere ends.
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