As the UK and the devolved administrations slowly start to release businesses from the lockdown imposed at the end of last year, it is worth examining the current state of the UK business community and the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy.
The latest analysis from the Office for National Statistics of responses to its voluntary fortnightly business survey shows that despite restrictions, the proportion of UK businesses currently trading has increased from 71% in early January 2021 to 75% in late March 2021.
Whilst this seems positive and is similar to the level seen last July, it is considerably lower than the 84% that were trading back in December 2020 prior to new Covid-19 restrictions.
Of course, that varies massively by industry and businesses based in other service activities – such as hairdressers and other beauty treatment activities – had the lowest percentage of businesses currently trading at 17% as a result of the required closures due to coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions.
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