Covid: Businesses will 'fail' without Government support as Omicron variant surges, warns Chamber of Commerce boss

Hannah Essex, co-executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce, has warned businesses will fail unless they are given support from the Treasury amid rising cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: “What we need to hear pretty much now, over the weekend, which should have been one of the busiest weekends of the year for businesses, is what are they going to do. Doing nothing is not an option right now … or we will see businesses fail.

“The Treasury have been phenomenal in terms of supporting businesses – the furlough scheme, the grants, the loan schemes – all of these things have kept these businesses going right to this point from when things started in March 2020, but they’re now in a position where they’ve used up cash reserves, their costs are going up quite dramatically because of the massive surge in inflation and suddenly at the time that should have been the time which would help them through into next year, their customers have just disappeared.

“So, we will see business failures if there isn’t any support coming in now.”

She gave an example of a museum in Surrey that had “lost £80,000 this month already” and a hotel in Swindon that was “looking at a £400,000 loss”.

“The last 20 months have been absolutely brutal for this sector. They were just starting to see things pick up and this is the point at which we could see them fall over the edge … and will inevitably lead to job losses as well,” she told BBC Breakfast.

She said the Treasury had “heard what we have to say” after industry leaders met with officials and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, adding: “We don’t want to see further restrictions – businesses want to be able to continue to trade and welcome customers back in the new year – but if there are restrictions, there has to be a package of support to go with it.”