As of Thursday, November 5, in a somewhat controversial move, the UK government will shutter a good portion of the country as COVID-19 cases rise.
In a release by the UK government, the new restrictions will remain in place until at least December 2nd.
The restrictions include:
- Requiring people to stay at home, except for specific purposes.
- Preventing gathering with people you do not live with, except for specific purposes.
- Closing certain businesses and venues.
At the end of the period (December 2nd), the government hopes to return to a regional approach.
As part of the lockdown, HM Treasury announced renewed business support measures, including for the self-employed. The announcement included an extension of lending programs backed by the UK government. To quote HM Treasury:
“… more businesses will be able to access additional support as deadlines for applications for government-backed loan schemes and the Future Fund have been further extended until 31 January 2021.”
Previously, the deadline was scheduled for the end of November.
Stephen Pegge, Managing Director of Commercial Finance at UK Finance, issued the statement on the news:
“The banking and finance industry is providing unprecedented support to help businesses throughout these tough times, with over 1.4 million firms receiving financing so far under the government-backed lending schemes. The extension of the application deadline to January 31 2021 will provide additional time to enable more businesses to access the finance they need, including those impacted by the latest lockdown restrictions. In addition, firms that have not yet borrowed their maximum under the Bounce Back Loan scheme will be able to top up their loan should they need more finance to help them through the difficult weeks ahead. We now look forward to working with the Treasury and British Business Bank to finalise the details of these changes over the coming week.”