According to data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK economy shrank by a record 9.9% over the last year – as coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns severely impacted almost every sector.

The contraction in the economy is more than double the previous largest annual fall on record with ONS.

Rises in GDP over a quarter are usually a sign of a healthy, strengthening and growing economy. Unfortunately this nominal climb in output, while better than expected, does not reflect the dire situation that many businesses are facing. Earlier this week the Resolution Foundation warned that the UK Government has risked creating a legion of zombie companies and we must avoid amplifying this status of many of the UK’s SMEs, living off an ever-increasing debt pile, at all costs.

While, the BBLS and CBILS played instrumental roles in keeping many resilient SMEs alive and acted as important triage systems to identify and support viable businesses that needed credit, we must now accept that we have passed this triage phase and instead it is imperative that we identify, prioritise and protect our most resilient individual business sectors and segments.