All the indicators point toward a sweet and sour year for start-ups. While UK tech startups raised €5.3 billion in venture capital funding between January and May 2020, similar to in 2019, the optimism appears to be subsiding in the second half of the year.
Chart of the Week
According to the Bank of England, the availability of mortgages declined dramatically in the three months ending May 2020 – implying a bigger credit squeeze than in the worst three-month period of the global financial crisis.
Chart of the Week
Wayne Rooney decried that ‘[If] Manchester United or Man City need 30 per cent of their players’ wages to survive… then football is in a far worse position than any of us imagined.’.
On the state of UK Business Closures
13.5% of all UK businesses have temporarily closed or paused trading, during the lockdown, with 86.4% of workers in these businesses on furlough.
May 2020
Since April we have seen politicians around the world trying to roll back on the panic created by the Corona Virus. The machinery of government and its institutions, particularly areas involved in health, led by the World Health Organisation, embraced the idea of pandemic and effectively shut down the world’s economy.
Covid 19, Alcohol Use and Mental Health
Pre-pandemic research found heightened risk from working under certain conditions such as in isolation away from friends and family; extended or shift-pattern working hours, in dangerous environments, under inadequate supervision or at risk from organisational change (restructure/redundancy)- a list that makes clear what may be driving this Covid related increase in consumption.