Business confidence in the South West has fallen to the lowest in England as the latest lockdown hits small and medium sized companies particularly hard, according to the latest Business Barometer report from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.

Compared with last month, confidence fell in five of the nine English regions, with the South West down 13 points to -8 per cent. Only 11 per cent for businesses in the region expect trading levels to have returned to pre-pandemic levels by this time next year while one-in-five expect to have to make job losses to survive. 

Paul Gordon of Lloyds said:

“While the road ahead will be challenging, we hope the news of the vaccine rollout progress will positively impact regional and sector confidence in the coming months.”