Bounceback loan delay has gym sweating
A Stirling gym has had to wait three months for a loan under a government scheme to fund businesses hit by a drop in income during the coronavirus pandemic.
Heat Fitness in Springkerse applied to HSBC at the end of May, but, as of last week, had still to receive cash under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS). According to a Government website BBLS ‘enables smaller businesses to access finance more quickly during the coronavirus outbreak.’
The money appeared in Heat Fitness’s bank account last Friday...three months after they submitted an application.
Heat Fitness, which is due to reopen on September 6, was set up four years ago by husband and wife, Jack Paton and Juliet Cassidy.
They closed in March as lockdown began and have since been running online classes seven days a week.
Juliet told the Observer last week: “Since closing the business, we have reduced our income significantly. It’s a third of what we were earning and we have been extremely lucky that our landlord has only charged us 50% of the rent - he has been fantastic.
“The ‘bounceback loan’ was touted by government as a way of helping businesses get back into business and will help as a buffer when they restart.
“Our business will not be the same as we will have to restrict numbers - our capacity will be around 40% of what it was, so this will affect our earning capacity too.
“After around six weeks and no response from HSBC, we tried to contact them this took around two hours to get through. We were told they were busy processing May applications.
“We waited another two weeks and contacted them again and I asked them what was happening and they said, they were doing the best they can but they had taken on all the feeder bank applications and this was slowing the process down.
“I then approached a few other banks, seven in total, and tried to apply for the bounceback loan, but was denied as I was not a business customer.
“So you cannot go to another bank if you can’t get a loan with your bank as they are all inundated.”
Jack grew up in Bridge of
Allan and went to Wallace High School. He served for nine years in the RAF before emigrating to Australia.
However, after 20 years down under he returned to Stirling five years ago and set up Heat Fitness with Juliet. His father, also Jack Paton, was a teacher at Wallace High School and at 87 attends yoga classes at Heat Fitness on a weekly basis. An HSBC UK spokesperson said this week: “We’ve seen unprecedented demand for Bounce Back Loans. We’ve approved over 170,000 Bounce Back Loans, totalling over £5bn, since the scheme launched and have been working hard to get these much-needed loans to our customers as quickly as possible.”
A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Energy spokesman said they did not comment on individual cases, adding: “Government fully appreciates the difficulties businesses face, caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Banks are aware of the current urgency and the Government expects them to respond to their customers’ needs.
“The Government continues to work with banks and other finance providers to help SMES access the finance they need.”
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