British finance minister Rishi Sunak bowed to pressure on Monday to do more to help companies survive the coronavirus shutdown, announcing full state guarantees on lending to Britain's smallest businesses.
Mr Sunak, who previously opposed 100 per cent government backing for emergency credit for small firms, said the government would fully stand behind commercial loans of up to £50,000 (Dh227,852) to firms.
Banks handling the loans will not be required to run credit checks or assess the long-term viability of applicants. Firms will incur no interest or repayments for the next 12 months.
"Some small businesses are still struggling to access credit," Mr Sunak told parliament. "If we want to benefit from their dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit as we recover our economy, they will need extra support."
Most British businesses have been shut to the public since March 23 under a government lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19, the respiratory disease that the coronavirus can cause.
Government forecasters have said the economy could contract by 35 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday it was still too risky to relax the lockdown.
Britain last month announced an emergency £330bn billion credit scheme including loans of up to £5 million for small and medium-sized companies, with state guarantees of 80 per cent.
But that programme got off to a slow start, with many companies saying they were struggling to get banks to approve their loans.
Mr Sunak said banks had now provided £3.4bn in 20,000 loans via the government's Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). The Bank of England had separately issued more than £14bn to bigger firms.
BoE Governor Andrew Bailey suggested this month that 100 per cent state guarantees for the smallest loans might break a backlog in loan applications.
The new scheme, which the government calls Bounce Back Loans, will open to businesses next Monday and aims to pay funds to firms within 24 hours of a successful application.
Business organisations broadly welcomed the new scheme, but said time was of the essence for many small businesses struggling with cash flow.
"This new route for our smallest companies to apply quickly and get a fast decision will be crucial to those who have struggled to get a CBILS loan," British Chambers of Commerce director general Adam Marshall said.
Mr Sunak has sought to counter criticism about CBILS by highlighting the strong take-up for another emergency government scheme which pays 80 per cent of the pay of workers temporarily laid off by companies.
He said 500,000 firms had made claims under the job retention scheme which covered nearly 4 million jobs with a value of £4.5bn.
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ARABIAN GULF LEAGUE FIXTURES
Thursday, September 21
Al Dahfra v Sharjah (kick-off 5.35pm)
Al Wasl v Emirates (8.30pm)
Friday, September 22
Dibba v Al Jazira (5.25pm)
Al Nasr v Al Wahda (8.30pm)
Saturday, September 23
Hatta v Al Ain (5.25pm)
Ajman v Shabab Al Ahli (8.30pm)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
MATCH INFO
Jersey 147 (20 overs)
UAE 112 (19.2 overs)
Jersey win by 35 runs
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
The years Ramadan fell in May
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Match info
Newcastle United 1
Joselu (11')
Tottenham Hotspur 2
Vertonghen (8'), Alli (18')
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
