Word on the street – well, not literally of course with the lockdown – is that the Treasury is set to announce a package designed to respond to the concerns of the Save Our Startups campaign (and many others) regarding the failure of current schemes to support startups. If and when something is announced, we’ll send out details in a Policy Update.

On the theme of policy updates, here’s a list of seven things you might have missed in all the noise.

1. Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Changes
The online claim service for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will be launched on Monday. Any entity with a UK payroll can apply, including businesses, charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities. Employers can now claim for employees that were employed and on their PAYE payroll on or before 19 March 2020, and employees that were employed as of 28 February 2020 and on payroll and were made redundant or stopped working for you after that, and prior to 19 March 2020, can also qualify for the scheme if you re-employ them and put them on furlough.

2. New Coronavirus Business Support Hub
There’s a new Coronavirus Business Support Hub. The hub brings together key information for businesses including on funding and support, business closures, your responsibilities as an employer and managing your business during coronavirus. The hub also includes information for self-employed people and sole traders.

3. New Personal protective equipment (PPE) Hub
There’s a new PPE Hub. The hub contains guidance on PPE and infection prevention and control (IPC), containing information for sectors beyond just health and social care.

4. New Innovate UK Grants
Innovate UK has announced a £20 million for ambitious technologies to build UK resilience. Grants of up to £50,000 will be available to technology and research-focussed businesses to develop new ways of working and help build resilience in industries such as delivery services, food manufacturing, retail and transport, as well as support people at home in circumstances like those during the coronavirus outbreak.

5. New European Union Hackathon
The European Union has announced a pan-European Hackathon to develop innovative solutions to overcome societal challenges related to coronavirus. All 27 EU Member States are taking part as well as Norway, Israel, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The winning solutions will be invited to join a European Innovation Council Platform that will facilitate connections with end users (e.g. hospitals) and provide access to investors, foundations and other funding opportunities from across the European Commission.

6. Exporters Licence Changes
The Department for International Trade has revised arrangements for processing licence applications during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, and detailed changes and further clarification on compliance checks for open licences.

7. Companies House Changes
Companies House has announced changes to help businesses avoid being struck off.

The Great Reopening
“The economy is not a machine that can be simply turned ‘on’ and ‘off’. It is a complex system, dependent on billions of relationships that are falling apart.” So opens Reopening Britain, a new paper released today by the Adam Smith Institute.

While acknowledging the need for the temporary shutdown of large swathes of the economy, the authors think many commentators are “substantially underestimating the damage being done and the challenge of reanimating the economy after the lockdown”.

The paper argues that the UK is falling behind other European countries – including Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Spain – who have developed and are beginning to execute strategies to reopen their economies.

If the Government wants to safeguard lives and livelihoods they must develop, and release, a phased plan for lifting the lockdown to provide greater confidence for businesses, suggest the authors. A position also adopted by the new Labour leader Keir Starmer. The report also calls for the cutting of unnecessary regulation and taxes that discourage investment.

To a large extent uncertainty is an inevitable part of this pandemic, but the report is right to argue that the Government needs to mitigate this as much as possible. If they fail to adequately devise, implement and communicate a pathway back to a normally functioning economy – and all the stages in between – businesses will be left with no option but to further cut back on investment and production.

The government knows this and we should support their efforts to-date. But we shouldn’t shy away from pointing out when other countries are doing things better. That’s how we all learn.

Pandemics Past & Present
The Economic Research Centre has undertaken a swift literature review on the impact of pandemics on SMEs. It draws out useful lessons to learn from past pandemics, but the data coming out of China, which is a few months ahead of us in facing and dealing with coronavirus, is perhaps the most instructive.

As the report states: “Early evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic in China emphasises the severity of the short-term effects on SMEs. In February 2020, 30 per cent reported that, due to a cash shortage, they would be able to sustain their business for no more than three months; 30 percent reported that they would be able to sustain their business for six to twelve months. Furthermore, 30 per cent of firms have seen their income fall by more than 50 per cent, with almost a third reporting a 20 to 50 per cent reduction.”

This dramatic economic impact only lends more weight to calls for the UK government to offer a pathway to reopening the economy. Our latest member of the team, Jess Etherington, has written more about the paper on our blog.