Covid - Current landscape release 15

The aim of this report is to outline the current landscape for businesses operating in automotive retail, highlighting the economic impact and operational challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic has created. Release 15 incorporates the most recent ONS BIC data released 3rd December.

 Highlights:

• The impact of England’s second countrywide lockdown and tighter restrictions across the other nations are starting to show. 20% of automotive businesses have temporarily closed or paused trading an increase of 9% since last reporting.
• There are some concerning warning signs as 3% of automotive businesses stated that they are at severe risk of insolvency and 13% at a moderate risk. Also 14% stated that they had low or no confidence that their business will survive the next 3 months, potentially putting 13,000 businesses at risk.
• Since the extension of the furlough scheme (beginning of November) the proportions of those on furlough have been increasing in line with the tightening of restrictions across the UK including the English lockdown 2. Currently proportions on furlough are at similar levels to August (17%) but are significantly lower than the first national lockdown.
• In the last release it was reported that the sector had outlined that approximately 11.7% (76,000) of the workforce could be made redundant over the next three month and that 22% (16,500) of these would be within the next month. This release reports of redundancies are in the region of 1% of the workforce (10,500) which is significantly lower than the sector had feared. This reporting the sector has outlined that approximately 5.2% of the workforce could be made redundant over the next three months. This could mean redundancies in the region of 33,500. Respondents also outlined that 6% (2,000) of these would be within the next month.