Commenting on the Federation of Small Businesses warning that SMEs face a funding gap as COVID-19 restrictions continue and financial support ends, Douglas Grant, Director of Conister, part of AIM listed Manx Financial Group, said: “As the lifeblood of the UK economy, we must continue to do all we can to protect agile and resilient SMEs who are working hard to adapt to the post-pandemic economy. However, we must remember that the UK’s SME debt burden is ballooning, and we are in serious danger of seeing a relentless flow of weak zombie-like companies falling off a loan default cliff. It is imperative that we avoid compounding this cycle by focussing solely on supporting sectors and businesses that are strong and nimble enough to adapt to the new economy and therefore continue contributing to its growth.

“At Conister we have worked tirelessly to provide access to much needed funding for SMEs and have continually fought for provisions to be guaranteed for the sector. We believe the introduction of the recovery loan scheme (RLS) will certainly help and we are pleased to see the Government look beyond the initial triage phase and instead identify, prioritise and protect our most resilient business sectors that can meaningfully contribute to the new economy.”