SCORES of businesses across the Bradford district are facing a financial cliff edge unless the Government steps in, an MP has warned today.

Bradford East MP Imran Hussain has urged the Government to allow businesses to extend the Bounce Back Loan repayment and interest holiday for a further six months to prevent an economic recovery from being choked off.

Under the Bounce Back Business Loan scheme announced in April 2020 by the Chancellor which made commercial loans of between £2,000 and £50,000 available to businesses struggling because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Interest and repayments do not have to be made for the first 12 months.

However, with many Coronavirus restrictions still in place Mr Hussain fears they may have scuppered the possibility of any meaningful recovery taking hold before the financial support ends.

Several Bradford based businesses have expressed their concern to Mr Hussain that they will struggle to make their payments on their loans, putting their survival at risk and scuppering any local economic recovery.

Whilst the Chancellor announced in September 2020 as part of the Government’s ‘Pay as You Grow’ scheme that businesses in receipt of Bounce Back Loans could opt for interest-only repayments for six months up to three times during the course of their loans, with repayments also able to be deferred for six months after six repayments have been made, Mr Hussain has stated that even interest payments could prove challenging for those businesses that are seeing no recovery.

The MP has urged the Chancellor to make an announcement in his Spring 2021 Budget on March 3, before the first round of payments are due to be made in May, and allow the interest and repayment holiday to be extended for a further six months if requested by businesses to give them financial breathing space as customers and profits return.

Speaking on his call to extend the repayment and interest-free holiday, Mr Hussain said: “Bounce back loans were designed to help stop businesses unable to access any other support during this pandemic from closing down and to get them back on their feet, yet as the 12-month interest and repayment free holiday for these loans nears its end, many businesses have yet to see any real green shoots of recovery.

“To therefore demand payments from those businesses that will only just be beginning to see customers and profits return, and which are understandably concerned about how they will make these payments, will choke off any economic recovery and prevent the bounce back for our economy that these loans were designed to support.

“Ahead of his budget the Chancellor, therefore, needs to build on his Pay as You Grow scheme that he announced last September, and extend the Bounce Back Loan repayment and interest holiday for a further six months for those businesses that still need more time for restrictions to be lifted and to see a return to profits.”