COVID to cost £23 billion

Covid safety to cost £23bn A survey of 1,500 small business owners by Hitachi Capital found the extra money firms need to spend on Covid infection-control measures will drag out the financial hit of the pandemic. Office risk assessments, signs, sanitising products, professional cleaning and air filtering systems are forecast to cost small business about £4,850 each on average this year, the equivalent of just under £23bn in total. How businesses are going to pay for this on the back of 14 months' worth of lower economic activity is, as yet, unclear.