Almost two thirds of businesses in the North East have seen falling revenues due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new survey.
The Office of National Statistics has released a new study gauging how hard the private sector has been hit by months of unprecedented disruption.
It paints a bleak picture of falling turnover for businesses across the board, with our region coming out as the hardest hit of all UK areas.
According to responses gathered between June 15 and 28, 64.3% of businesses in the North East reported falling turnovers - and it's not hard to see why.
Around the country, footfall is still almost two thirds lower than this time last year and just 19% of adults say they are shopping for more than basic necessities.
Social-distancing measures are also costing businesses money: 90% of accommodation and food businesses say operation costs have gone up due to the implementation of safety measures.
The average figure for business reporting falling turnovers for the UK was 57.6%.
The alarming North East turnover figures are broken down further: 24.3% said turnovers had decreased by up to 20%; 25.2% said turnovers had decreased by between 20% and 50%; 14.8% said turnovers had decreased by more than a half.
Just 11.9% of North East businesses reported increased turnover while 16.5% said they had been unaffected.
Despite the grim findings, the same ONS survey found that 92% of North East respondents are still trading, although it's unclear if that figure will be skewed by non-responses from shuttered companies.
Percentages of businesses reporting a fall in turnover, according to ONS survey data*:
- North East - 64.3%
- Scotland - 62%
- South West - 61.9%
- Yorkshire & the Humber - 61.2%
- West Midlands - 60.9%
- North West - 60.1%
- East Midlands - 59.3%
- South East - 59.2%
- London - 58.9%
- East of England - 58.7%
- Wales - 57.5%
- Northern Ireland - 48.9%
These calculation were compiled by the Daily Mirror.
