London businesses show signs of recovery post-lockdown
There are encouraging signs that businesses in the capital are on the road to recovery after emerging from lockdown.
Despite a bleak year for firms across a broad range of sectors, a new poll of London businesses show a slight improvement in business conditions in the third quarter.
The majority of the firms surveyed by the London Chamber of Commerce (LCC) and Savanta Comres reported downturns in most of the indicators. But a fifth of businesses anticipate their economic prospects to improve over the next year.
It comes as a new report published today shows that London businesses are among the most confident in the UK, according to Lloyd’s Business Barometer.
September was the first time that London firms felt optimistic about the economy for the first time in six months.
The LCC survey shows that the number of companies reporting an increase in domestic sales and export orders rose in the third quarter. Businesses reporting an increase in orders rose to nine per cent from five per cent in the second quarter.
And one in ten businesses reported a rise in export orders, an increase on the four per cent in the second quarter.
And more companies reported improvements in their cashflow with 10 per cent reporting an increase across the quarter.
This is likely in large part due to the reopening of large swathes of the economy, notably the hospitality and retail sectors.
But London’s economy faces a number of barriers in the coming months, particularly as the government starts to impose further restrictions in the face of a second wave.
Nearly two thirds of firms polled still reported a drop in cashflow in the last quarter, while 45 per cent anticipate their economic prospects to worsen.
The hospitality was dealt a devastating blow last week as Boris Johnson unveiled plans for a 10pm curfew.
Richard Burge, chief executive of LCC said: “As we head into the final quarter of what has been a largely unprecedented year for business for all the wrong reasons, companies need any further Covid-19 measures introduced by the Government to be evidence-based in terms of where transmission occurs. Otherwise, any signs of recovery will quickly reverse.”