Access to cash in the short and medium-term is still an uncertainty for many businesses as they struggle with trading conditions created by the Covid-19 pandemic, reveals the latest results from ACCA UK and The Corporate Finance Network’s (The CFN) weekly poll of accountants working for approximately 11,500 small business clients across the UK.

The results show 39% of businesses will not be able to access the additional cash they will need to last two more weeks of lockdown – a slight increase in last week’s result of 38%.

Looking ahead to four weeks of further lockdown, this number rises to 53%.

The poll has seen glimpses of optimism about growth, with accountants reporting that 5% of businesses will be growing in three months’ time compared to just 2% last week. Respondents also said 11% will probably be trading normally in 12 weeks’ time, compared to 5% last week. This optimism may be due to the raft of proactive measures introduced by the UK government in recent weeks.

The poll closed at 3pm on 21 April 2020, and consequently results do not yet show the full effect of the furlough funding package.

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