The Road to Recovery: How we’re helping businesses across the Midlands
Amanda Dorel, regional director for the Midlands at Lloyds Bank, looks at the support Lloyds is providing to businesses across the region as restrictions are lifted and they look to get back to business as usual.
The coronavirus pandemic has immeasurably and indelibly changed the way we live. Working from home has become the new normal and shopping online has become standard. However, following the 
latest step in the government’s roadmap out of lockdown and now that Spring is in the air, it’s been encouraging to see people return to towns and cities. As well as high streets getting busier, many people have eagerly taken the chance to get back to their local pubs and restaurants as venues open for outdoor service.
This steadily increasing optimism has been felt among businesses recently, too. Lloyds Bank’s Business Barometer survey for March found that confidence among businesses in the West Midlands was higher than anywhere else in the UK, while confidence in the East Midlands reached its highest point since February 2020. With the latest easing of restrictions, and further measures due to be relaxed on 17th May, we are cautiously optimistic that this will increase further in the coming months.
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Although many things have changed forever after the last year, ambitious businesses in towns and cities across the Midlands are anticipating new opportunities for growth. As part of Lloyds Bank’s commitment to helping Britain prosper we will be working with businesses to support them along the road to recovery, providing guidance and insight as they move towards a brighter future.
One way we’re doing this is through providing funding to businesses as they take initial steps towards recovery. Like all pubs, the Bull’s Head Inn in Shropshire was told to close its doors to customers during the first lockdown. However, it was able to switch to offering takeaway food during the coronavirus shutdown, thanks to financial support from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. It has used the enforced closures in January to renovate its outdoor area to ensure it was ready to welcome customers when outdoor service at pubs resumed from 12th April.
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We also know there will be a growing focus on sustainability as the country works towards a green recovery, which will be at the forefront of the agenda in 2021 as the UK plays host to COP26 later this year. The region has the potential to lead this recovery and local companies, small and large, all have a role to play in this. The WM2041 blueprint unveiled last year signposted some of the initiatives local authorities in the West Midlands will be taking to drive sustainable growth, including a green innovation challenge for SMEs to find solutions for some of our climate change challenges.
To help firms looking to improve their sustainability credentials, our Clean Growth Finance Initiative (CGFI) provides discounted funding to help businesses transition to a lower carbon, more sustainable future. Last year we supported Derbyshire-based manufacturer LB Plastics with a seven-figure CGFI loan to invest in a state-of-the-art new production facility for new environmentally friendly product lines, which will form part of an innovative 100 percent recyclable aluminium window system.
If the past twelve months have taught us anything, it’s that we can’t predict what’s around the corner and it is too early to assess what towns and cities across the region can expect going forward. Whatever the future holds, we will remain by the side of the business community here in the Midlands in the months and years ahead, helping them as they move towards recovery, come what may.
