Nearly half of all small and medium sized enterprise owners in the UK fear their business is under threat of closure due to the impact on trading caused by Covid-19 and the country’s lockdown measures.
This is according to a new survey from insurer Simply Business, which found 41% of owners were concerned the pandemic would force them to close, and 4% responding that they’d already folded – a figure Simply Business suggested represents 234,000 SMEs when the results are generalised to the UK’s 5.8 million SMEs.
In financial terms, the survey calculated the total impact of Covid-19 will exceed £69bn ($84.5bn), a figure extrapolated from respondents’ estimates that the pandemic will cost them £11,779 each on average.
Simply Business UK CEO Alan Thomas said: “No business has been able to escape the impact of the pandemic – and that’s no different for small businesses and the self-employed.
“Yet they are the lifeblood of the economy, and with many of these at risk of permanent closure, so much is at stake for our local communities and wider economy.”
Simply Business surveyed 3,700 SMEs across the UK for its SME Confidence Report.