Business impacts of Coronavirus

Business impacts of Coronavirus

ONS has produced new regional data on the impact of restrictions on businesses up until the beginning of Step 3. The data, as usual, shows that tourism/hospitality is the most impacted sector of the economy but there are marked regional differences. For example, the East Midlands had 79% of hospitality businesses operating between 4-16 May, while only 24% of hospitality businesses in the West Midlands were operating during this period. On a UK-wide basis, 66% of hospitality businesses were operating compared with 83% of all businesses.

Similarly, 68% of hospitality businesses report a decline in revenue, which is twice the percentage of UK businesses as a whole (34%) that report a decrease in turnover. These are regional variations within these figures as well, with only 56% of hospitality businesses in the South West reporting a decline in revenue compared to 72% in the South East.

Read the ONS article here.