Treasury urged to adapt business support for loss-making firms

The government may have made several overhauls to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans Scheme (CBILS) in recent days but business finance specialist Rangewell is pushing for it to go further to support loss-making firms and particular sectors.

It has called for three extra measures to make CBILS more effective.

Rangewell has highlighted that loss-making businesses currently cannot access CBILs and suggests increasing income tax relief for enterprise investment schemes (EIS) to allow support for these types of companies.

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“A loss-making business is not a bad business,” Nic Conner, head of research for Rangewell, said.

“Often they are investing heavily in growing market share, rolling out a concept or building world-leading technology.

“We cannot let conoravirus wipe out a generation of our young and fast-growth businesses – they are the future of UK business.”

He suggested many young startups may not want to take on debt so would be better off with EIS support.

Some EIS providers have called for a similar measure.

Rangewell is also calling for better support for firms such as dentists, opticians, pharmacies and vets, that have either been forced to close or are operating reduced hours under immense capacity constraints. They will perform vital roles in the health of the nation once the lockdown is lifted.

Its third demand is for CBILS accreditation to be expanded to a wider range of alternative lenders, although it is believed that this is already taking place and a number of peer-to-peer lenders have submitted applications.