It was recently reported that HSBC plans to move out of its global headquarters in Canary Wharf, London.

Research by property analytics provider CoStar has also revealed that vacant office space is at a record high, with an increase of 68% on the pre-pandemic level recorded in early 2020.

Reportedly Knight Frank and commercial real estate firm Cresa found that 50% the largest businesses they questioned expect to shrink their global workspaces.

Paradoxically the Cresa survey also found that this contrasts with the expectations of smaller firms surveyed – those with up to 10,000 employees – just over half (55%) of whom said they were expecting to increase their global office space.

Is this evidence of an increasing divide between businesses embracing hybrid working and smaller, greener, more flexible headquarters that is more convenient for employees and old command and control bosses mandating staff to be in the office the majority of the time?

Certainly, the move by HSBC...

Restrictions may have been lifted but Covid levels in the community are still high and this can cause problems for both employer and their employees.

If someone contracts Covid the advice still is to self-isolate for at least five days.

However, this could result in employees losing three days of the statutory sick pay available from the Government, leaving them with just two days sick pay if they abide by the rules. SSP in the UK is just £96.35 per week.

To make matters worse, lateral flow tests are no longer free, so there is also a risk that someone with mild symptoms that are similar to a cold may not test themselves at all, carrying on working and risking spread of the illness to other colleagues.

In a previous post we advised employers to complete a health and safety risk assessment that includes the risk from COVID-19, provide adequate ventilation, clean more often and to ask people with COVID-19 or any of the main COVID-19 symptoms to stay away and enable them to work...

As the deadline approaches for the submission of annual tax returns it has emerged that some businesses are realising that they have claimed incorrectly for covid support.

Law firm Pinsent Masons has analysed data that showed around twenty-five professional services partnerships have admitted to overclaiming furlough, with the total amount wrongly claimed coming to £309,588.

It is not surprising given the various modifications that were made to the scheme during the height of the pandemic, they suggest. It is also likely that these numbers will increase as more returns are submitted.

According to HMRC there are over 1,200 staff currently investigating 23,000 cases of suspected fraudulent Covid claims.

It says “Work to recover fraud and error began almost as soon as the schemes launched. We recovered £500 million of overpayments in 2020 to 2021”.

Do you know whether your business has claimed legitimately for covid support?

At a time when businesses are facing...

The High Court has closed down two businesses this month after it was found that they submitted false documents to at least 41 local authorities and the government’s bounce back loan (BBL) scheme to secure £230,000 worth of emergency support.

LV Distributions and SIO Traders were investigated by the Insolvency Service, which proved that neither company had ever actually traded.

One of the two had been claiming to supply personal protective equipment while the other had claimed to sell medical care products.

The Government has warned that it will be cracking down on Covid fraud and in June the Public Accounts Committee of MPs, for the department for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS), that suspected Covid-related fraud amounted to £27bn.

It has been argued that some of this loss could be attributed to a failure to carry out basic checks and controls in the rush to get funding out to struggling businesses.

The message is clear.

Businesses need to make...

The Government’s furlough scheme to help employers through the pandemic is being scaled back, with wage support being reduced from 70% to 60% and employers’ contribution increased to 20% this month.

The whole scheme will end on September 30.

One survey carried out this week has found that an estimated 350,000-plus SMEs cannot now repay Covid loans due to the impact of cash flow and supply chains.

An estimated 18% of the survey participants reported that they intended to make redundancies while around 16% said they could not afford to pay existing staff because of the pressure of repaying Covid-related loans.

At the same time, it has been widely reported that businesses have been facing difficulties in recruiting staff in some sectors.

So what should businesses do?

Try to hang on to staff in the hope that business will pick up?

Make some redundancies now to improve their cash flow and hope to rehire staff in better times?

How you treat your staff will affect your...

Closing an insolvent business is a horrible experience but disqualification from being a director is even worse.

In a recent case in the North of England the director of a retail business was disqualified for 11 years after it was concluded that he had overstated his turnover when claiming a Covid Bounce Back loan.

The regulations state that eligibility for a loan was in doubt given that they should be for less than 25% of the previous year’s turnover.

It appeared that the business had already ceased trading the previous year but insolvency officials said he should have known that turnover had been insufficient to qualify for the loan, which was paid out in May 2020.

It also found that he had failed to provide sufficient records to establish what the funds were used for.

This situation emphasises the duties on directors to not only keep accurate and detailed financial records but also to ensure they comply with all their duties when applying for a Covid-related BBLS or CBILS...

The 12 month loan repayment holiday has ended. Small businesses are due to start repaying Covid support loans following the end of the loan repayment holiday.

Bounce back loans were first launched last May, and banks extended £46.5bn to 1.5m SMEs but reports say that already a fifth of SMEs have asked for more time to pay.

One accountancy firm, Mazuma Accountants, says a survey they carried out at the end of May revealed that as many as 39% of small businesses believe they would struggle to meet repayments.

According to the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) many are unaware of banks’ pay as you grow schemes, which could help with managing the repayments but warns they should ensure they are clear about the impact schemes could have on their future credit needs.

The business environment is likely to remain tricky for many for some time to come and it will take time to ramp up to full activity, especially in the face of uncertainty about lockdown easing,...

The spotlight is turning to company directors as HMRC continues to crack down on fraudulent claims for furloughing staff.

The latest figures show that over 11 million workers have been furloughed in the UK and 41% of employers had staff furloughed. As of January 2021, HMRC had received over 21,000 reports of potential furlough fraud.

The March 2021 budget included an investment of £100 million for the creation of a taskforce to tackle fraud within the furlough scheme.

Among the HMRC powers are the ability to charge individual directors found to have played a role in fraudulent claims under the Criminal Finances Act 2017.

HMRC Attention is particularly focused on claims by insolvent companies or companies where there is a "serious possibility" of insolvency. Directors may face claims for breach of their statutory duties and disqualification under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

As lockdown restrictions are gradually eased businesses will be preparing to increase their activity.

But how many of them will emerge as very different organisations from the ones they were at the start of the pandemic?

Some have already changed their offering or target markets to meet the changed conditions, like the marquee rental company that pivoted to offering equipment to clients needing extra space for temporary canteens, classrooms or even warehouses.

The pandemic has forced many businesses to look more closely at their offerings, their processes and the way they work for the longer term.

These already include including switching to using remote working and intending to continue wherever possible, thereby reducing both their office space and their overheads. Manufacturers are likely to automate production lines and introduce AI and robotics.

There will be more investment in internet-based technology, remote staff surveillance to cloud storage and enhanced security systems.

Commercial property pre-pandemic was considered one of the more secure options for money by investors, particularly by pension fund managers.

But the consequences of changing consumer behaviour, the aftermath of the pandemic lockdown and the retail High Street revolution would suggest a pause for thought and perhaps a rethink.

While the most obvious sector of business related property to be in trouble is retail it may prove not to be the only one.

Retail has been hit by a significant move to online shopping that has been building for several years, but it is also beset by what has been called an archaic rental collection system, whereby rents are payable quarterly.

The most recent Quarter Day was on 24th June (Midsummer Day) and it has been estimated that in the region of just 14% of retailers were paid their rent that day.

It was no surprise, therefore that Intu, owner of some of the UK’s biggest shopping centres, such as Lakeside and Manchester’s Trafford Centre called...