Black Country businesses need clarity over lockdown, says industry chief
Businesses in the Black Country need to be told of a clear plan for easing the lockdown amid fears for thousands of jobs, an industry expert has said.
Corin Crane, chief executive of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, said it was crucial companies were given an idea of how long the economy would be at a standstill, and that he was particularly fearful for the region's car industry.
He said mixed messages, with some retailers indicating they are preparing to reopen despite Government advice remaining unchanged, was providing further uncertainty for businesses.
Pub chain Wetherspoon has said it is planning to reopen around June, while B&Q has reopened all its stores.
Mr Crane said: "It is definitely getting to the situation now, particularly for small retailers and businesses, their customer base is going, their profile is dropping.
"The most important thing at the moment is people's health and wellbeing. What we don't want is businesses coming back and for it to start to spike again and our National Health Service can't cope.
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"However, we are already seeing businesses beginning to reopen. The problem at the moment is there are very mixed messages coming from Government. On one hand they maintain the lockdown is very serious, on the other hand the Premier League, B&Q and Next are saying they are thinking of opening.
"There absolutely needs to be a very clear plan of action on how lockdown is lifted and how we return to the workplace. If they don't give a plan people will start to fill in the gaps."
Mr Crane raised doubts about whether businesses that have been hit hardest would be able to keep on all workers once the Government's furlough scheme comes to an end, while he expressed fears about how the region's automotive sector would recover.
"How many redundancies will be announced once the furlough scheme ends?," he said. "Once businesses come back into play it might take them three, six or nine months to get back to 100 per cent of their order books. They can't slowly bring back staff because furlough will end."
He added: "You have to have real worries about how it (the car industry) will fare.
"Some of the diesel productions were already struggling. For those businesses to come back into this environment where people will probably buying less cars for a time, I don't know how they will adapt."
Mr Crane suggested it might be down to the Government to stop companies in the automotive, travel and other sectors from going to the wall.
He said: "In 2008 there was a general consensus we were bailing the banks out of a problem they had created themselves, but it seemed to be the right thing to do to save the economy.
"The Government has intervened to slow the economy down, I would expect some Government intervention to get it going again."
