Virus leaves 70% of Welsh firms with cashflow issues
NEW FSB research shows that 70% of firms in Wales have experienced a very negative impact on cashflow as a result of the pandemic.
Only 3% have seen no impact on their cashflow, and 7.5% have seen a positive impact.
Furthermore, almost a third of firms had concerns about whether they would be able to reopen following the pandemic.
Ben Francis, FSB Wales policy chair, said: “It is not possible to overstate the immediacy of the situation facing Wales’ businesses. These are the firms that invest in our local economies, create jobs and have done so much to help support our communities through the outbreak.
“For Wales to be successful in a post-coronavirus world, we will need our smaller firms. That means that those firms need us today.
“Data shows us that firms are facing significant challenges, and yet they are still doing everything that they can at this time to support their communities – from K Sharp, a human sciences research firm that is now repurposing their 3D-printing machine to produce PPE, to Red Dragon Flagmakers, who are turning their textiles skills to making scrubs for the NHS and other organisations.
“I am so proud to work alongside organisations like these, who are putting their communities first and working tirelessly to support those around them at such a difficult time.
“Businesses in Wales clearly are in and of their communities. We would be so much worse-off without them, and so we must take action to protect these firms and help them restart – for the sake of our economy and our population as a whole.”
It comes as FSB publishes a new paper, Reopening Wales, which has identified a number of actions that the Welsh Government should take to support smaller firms as we begin to ease restrictions. These include:
■ Business Wales should provide advice and guidance on the twometre rule and social distancing;
■ The Welsh Government should introduce a Social Distancing Grant Fund;
■ The Welsh Government should support tourism firms with a Tourism Hibernation Scheme;
■ Funding should be refocused on town-centre regeneration;
■ A cyber-security campaign keep businesses safe online;
■ A focus on the HR support firms will need; and
■ The Welsh Government should take action to address late payments.
In addition to this, it said there is to
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role for the UK Government in terms of relaxing Welsh Government borrowing limits and providing clarity on the Shared Prosperity Fund – the successor to EU structural funding.
Mr Francis said: “We want to present Welsh Government with positive ideas to contribute towards a plan for how businesses can be supported to come out of lockdown, because there must be a plan to assist firms as they seek to navigate such uncertain terrain.
“The pandemic has caused an unprecedented strain on Wales’ smaller firms, but there is now an opportunity to look at how we ensure that the post-lockdown period is as successful as possible. Our tourism firms, for example, will have to take a very different approach to how they work for this season and into the next. There are ways for Welsh Government to support these firms and ensure that they can still come back next season despite having lost a significant amount of income this year, and a Tourism Hibernation Scheme is one way to do this.
“These are difficult questions that must be answered by Welsh Government to ensure that we can all benefit from the contribution of Wales’ smaller firms, and at FSB we want to contribute towards how we answer those questions.”