This week we unsurprisingly heard that no meaningful changes will be made to Scotland’s pandemic restrictions for at least another week, leaving many businesses effectively shut down with no visibility of what the future holds, therefore limiting the ability to forward plan.
Although there was some additional support funding announced, this is no more than a drop in the ocean compared with huge losses being incurred by companies as a direct result of the chaotic way our government is handling the situation.
A recent report suggested that the cancellation of parties and related activity prior to Christmas had led to over a billion pounds of losses for our hard-pressed hospitality sector.
Businesses taking the brunt of government failure
But this isn’t just about pubs and restaurants. Hotels, entertainment and sports venues, office services firms and transport providers to name just a few, are all being forced to take the brunt and pay the price for the inability of our authorities to effectively plan for and deal with this pandemic.
Conversations with just three chamber members from these sectors this week revealed lost revenue of £3.5 million since the additional restrictions were introduced.
Multiply that up across the region and nation and you’ll see that the available support falls woefully short.
If the situation isn’t already bad enough, this ongoing campaign of propaganda and fear-mongering is creating a situation where, to all intents and purposes, the first quarter of 2022 is written off for many companies already.
Remember December 2020’s intervention turned into four months of misery and lockdown threatening not just economic health but the mental health of millions.
Covid support billions set to be wasted
Less than 200 miles south it’s a very different story. In England ministers were confident that new curbs are not needed based on there being “nothing in the latest data to back restrictions”- putting Scottish businesses at a significant competitive disadvantage against our near neighbours.
A wave of insolvencies renders the billions of pounds spent on keeping businesses alive through the last 22 months wasted.”
An article in the Press & Journal quoted a leading legal expert who warned that firms in his sector were gearing up to deal with a wave of insolvencies as this latest set of restrictions prove to be the final straw for companies that have done their best to survive while complying but simply can no longer continue trading.
This renders the billions of pounds spent on keeping businesses alive through the last 22 months wasted.
As I said in the early summer of 2020, the economic harms from this will be far more damaging and long-lasting than anything else.
I repeat again that it is not the role of businesses to pay the price for public health interventions and they are not to blame for the fact that NHS capacity is stretched, which has been an annual narrative for the last decade or more.
Public Health Scotland data tells us that average available staffed beds in hospitals have declined by 1,358 between 2011-12 and 2020-21. And, of course, the emergency NHS Louisa Jordan bed provision was removed months ago – a masterpiece of forward planning.
Lockdowns are a failure of public health policy
Government health advisor Mark Woolhouse said recently that lockdowns aren’t a public health policy. Instead that they signify a failure of public health policy. This administration’s solution to addressing its failure? Make the private sector pay and further limit the civil liberties of its citizens.
The legislation that was passed enabling the Scottish Government to impose emergency measures states that Scottish Ministers “should consider, when making the regulations that the restriction or requirement is proportionate to what is sought to be achieved by imposing it”.
So far, despite repeated requests, the Scottish Government has been unable to share sufficient evidence on Omicron illness that would justify the current draconian measures being enforced on the businesses.
Should we just accept and plan for the scenario that, going forward, government will arbitrarily close businesses every winter when that year’s dominant coronavirus strain mutates? This is something we have been living and dealing with for years, without ruining our economy.
Over the next week the choice for our leaders is clear. Either put in place a scheme that provides full reparation for lost income and/or increased costs to companies affected by the stricter measures introduced in December or announce immediately that all restrictions are removed.
Not doing so threatens the very survival of many businesses and unnecessarily puts at risk tens of thousands of jobs.
Russell Borthwick is the chief executive of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce
