The High Streets Task Force renews the COVID-19 Business Resilience Survey in England
As you may remember, in April this year the Institute of Place Management and The BID Foundation supported a COVID-19 Business Resilience Survey, run by the High Streets Task Force, the survey recieved a great response with over 1000 completions from range of high street businesses. Thank you to all IPM and TBF members who helped distribute the survey successfully.
The initial survey, which was open from 17th -27th April 2020 found:
- 55% of business premises were closed and not currently operating
- 67.4% of businesses have seen an 81-100% decrease in turnover compared to last year
- Almost all of respondents (96%) have applied for Government support, via one or more of its relief schemes.
The most prevalent support schemes were the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (i.e. ‘furlough’), deferment of VAT payments, business rates relief and small business grants. - Government financial support was most frequently used for paying suppliers, staff wages, utilities and rent
- Only 61% of businesses had paid their last monthly rent bill in full.
(77% of survey respondents were tenants in their business premises). - 52% expect to pay their next month’s rent in full
Many businesses (42%) have negotiated some alternative arrangement with their landlord. Of those respondents that were owner-occupiers with commercial mortgages, all had been able to secure some form of flexibility such as a ‘holiday’ on the interest and/or capital.
Click here to access the full report related to the initial survey.
The Task Force is now renewing this survey for government, to help them understand how the situation has changed and to respond to the economic effects of the pandemic in England. In addition, the government is keen to identify the impact of social distancing measures on performance and the possible impact of local lockdowns.
For our members and BIDs based in England, we hope that you are able to support this survey by sharing it with your local networks. The survey takes less than 15 minutes to complete and aims to understand more about the impact on business as a result of COVID-19 in particular locations. The survey will remain open until the end of August to maximise the reach. We will review the finding of the survey in early September, including a regional breakdown, which will also help us as HSTF Partners to highlight key issues and support needs to government.
Click here to access and complete the survey
Key information to share with your networks:
- The COVID-19 Business Resilience Survey can be completed here: https://mmu.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8f6i4aqaAVvoxGR
- Full details about the Survey – it’s purpose and information for participants – can be found below. All of this is accessible from the link above, should participants land there without reading.
- An image that can be used when sharing the survey link, on social or in email. Click here to download.
Data protection and business anonymity related to this survey
Information submitted to this survey will be held and managed by Manchester Metropolitan University, as host to the Institute of Place Management, acting as Data Controller. The Institute of Place Management will analyse the information collected in order to create an accumulated and anonymised picture to support its case to government. No data will be shared with any party outside of IPM that enables the identification of a specific business, or any other party to hold information about specific businesses.
The full version of the participant information sheet which includes additional information about data protection can be found here: https://placemanagement.org/research/participant-information
If you have any further enquiries about how the data will be used, please contact ipm@mmu.ac.uk
About the author
Formed in 2006, the Institute of Place Management is the international professional body that supports people committed to developing, managing and making places better.