Wipeout fears spark support reminder
Half of smaller businesses and sole traders surveyed in the national park say lockdown restrictions beyond September would sound their death knell.
But the National Park Authority and one of their partners are encouraging more of them to access available support to help mitigate the coronavirus impact.
A survey, carried out by The Community Partnership within the first few weeks of the lockdown period, gathered insights from 170 small businesses operating within the 20 community council areas across the National Park.
This was in addition to an update issued by local independent conservation and heritage charity The Friends of Loch Lomondand The Trossachs who last week said at least £200 million could be wiped off the value of tourism in the National Park this year with the potential loss of at least a quarter of the tourism businesses and over 1,200 redundancies.
The Community Partnership survey focused particularly on smaller businesses and sole traders operating in premises or with businesses which are not business rated as the numbers they impact are too small and are, therefore, paying council tax.
The survey found that of the 170 businesses who responded:
•Over 85 per cent of them reported business was more than 80 per cent down;
• The businesses were responsible for 650 jobs and the anticipated job loss was 292 (-45 per cent) by the end of June;
• Fifty per cent said if restrictions to trade continued after September they were uncertain if their business would re-open in 2021;
•However 80 per cent thought they would spring to life immediately if restrictions were respondents were unaware of what business support was available;
• And 53 per cent were unsure or did not understand what was on offer or how to engage and claim.
Tim Tindle, chair of the Community Partnership, said: “In many instances these businesses are the cornerstone of our communities but what has come through clearly from this survey is that many of them are not actively engaging with, not able to or are unaware of how to access support.
For information and regular updates visit www.lochlomondtrossachs.org/Coronavirus and www.thecommunitypartnership. org.uk.