Fifth of small firms fear new lockdown wipeout

Almost one fifth of Britain’s small and medium-sized enterprises think they would fail to survive another lockdown and would be forced to stop trading permanently if one came into effect, a survey suggests.

Business insurer Simply Business questioned more than 500 S ME owners and also found that a third feel they would be impacted worse than the first lockdown but could survive. A further third or so feel a second lockdown would have the same impact as the first and just 5 per cent think they would cope better than the first.

Encouragingly, 68 per cent of small business owners expect their employee numbers to remain the same.

Alan Thomas, UK chief executive of Simply Business, said: “The nationwide lo ckdown has had a significant effect on all businesses. And our research has highlighted the potentially fatal impact that further lockdowns could have on many small businesses.”