18

May

For those businesses who may be experiencing problems getting business support loans, we thought it might be helpful to share some information provided by Kirsty McGregor, at The Corporate Finance Network.

Kirsty reports that “there is a lot of activity on social media as Starling Bank have declined a large number of Bounce Back loans, and it appears to be mainly sole traders.”

Kirsty has put together a short presentation on her LinkedIn page. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstymcgregor/

The main issue for Starling bank appears to be that they could not be sure that the loan would be used solely for business purposes. As this is a requirement under the bank’s money laundering obligations, that cannot be stated explicitly to the customer.

We would encourage you to try the signpost that the government have set up to help identify what support is out there, but there are other avenues to follow if a bounce back loan is not available and if any sole traders are becoming desparate, as Kirsty McGregor summarises below:

  1. “Apply for SEISS if eligible
  2. Defer all loans/mortgages/rent after agreement with suppliers
  3. Defer any taxes after agreement with HMRC
  4. Apply for Universal Credit
  5. Check if they have been eligible for the local authority loans for small rateable properties (or watch for the discretionary fund from English LAs coming soon) or additional grants from devolved administrations
  6. Pay it Forward Scheme – either informally with customers or using this https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/funds/businesses
  7. Diversify and hone all their entrepreneurial skills!”

Remember that although we are working from home, NATA is still working as normal and available if you need to contact us for any help and support and we shall continue to keep our website blog pages updated with any relevant new information.