- Big question, (soft electronic music)
what should the government be doing with your money,
and my money, the tax payer's money,
to drive business forward,
to drive the economy forward,
after coronavirus,
and in this intermediary time that we're in?
Yes, YouTube, I've been deliberating on exactly
what the government should be doing with
our taxpayer billions, to make sure that your jobs,
your businesses, and our economy, stays intact.
I wanna be absolutely clear,
I think they've done some stuff right.
But to be frank, I think they have done some stuff
that's really, really stupid.
And so, in this video, I'm gonna share all.
If you new here, make sure you subscribe to the channel,
so more people can learn about business,
and keep in business, during the coronavirus.
And, as we go through, make sure that you comment as well,
especially if you disagree with me,
and if you agree with me, it's great for my ego,
but if disagree with me,
we can have some keyboard warrior moments
to see what we disagree on.
Honestly, you can say what you like.
It really doesn't hurt my feelings.
Comment below as we go.
So, thing number one I think the government
have done well on is the furlough situation.
That's where the government are paying 80%
of all furloughed workers wages.
But, let me be clear, what I don't like
is that people are effectively being paid
80% of their wages to stay at home.
The government have committed to this expenditure,
but I think they could use that expenditure
to drive our economy forward.
So, I think, in industries that are really hard hit,
especially leisure, hospitality, and tourism,
they should allow these sectors to pay the 80%,
but actually work whilst there working for that 80%,
and then the government, or the companies,
should I say, top up 20%.
So, people get 100% of their salaries,
but for a couple of months the government
are paying 80% of them.
That means that those industries, leisure, hospitality,
retail, restaurants, cinemas,
theaters, can have a chance of surviving.
What seems absolutely baring to me,
is the tax-payers money,
yours and I's money,
is being paid for people to sit at home.
Now, whilst that's okay for a short period of time,
we're all gonna end up like vegetables.
There's only so much that we can take of calling our friends
and asking how you are.
And, frankly, what the government need to do,
is get the people back to work to drive the economy forward.
The problem is some people might see this as fraud,
where they're collecting the money,
they're making just as much money as before,
and they're now getting 80% of their wages paid.
Common sense needs to be some mean testing,
and its obvious that some industries
are really in a struggle.
Those industries that we love, those industries like
going to the theater, going to cinema,
going out for a restaurant,
things that brings community back together,
because these social distancing rules,
they're just not going to be able to operate
on the capacity that they did before.
So, I'd like to see a furlough shake up.
I think that, that money that they're paying
should be used to drive the economy forward,
not to allow people just to sit at home.
It's all right if we just doing it for a month,
but if this is gonna be prolonged,
there needs to be a shake up there.
So, please, if you agree with that,
please write letters to your MPs.
If you'd like an example of that letter,
you can email me through my website jamessinclair.net,
and I will give you an example letter that you can send to
your MP to try and drive this ideology forward.
Let's use tax payers money to drive the economy forward,
not to sit at home.
Secondly, as a man that pays around a million pounds a year,
just say that again, a million pounds a year
in commercial rents to people like Lakeside shopping center
and other commercial landlords,
these people are still demanding rent when
we're not allowed to trade.
I mean, hello, have people lost
their complete and utter common sense?
Don't get me wrong, but government have come forward
with some security.
But, really, not enough.
What needs to happen is there needs to be a rent holiday
for people in leisure, hospitality, retail,
or any business that they can't trade
because of a legal stand point,
because it's unsafe.
How can it be expected to carry on paying their rent?
The government need to, with the powers that they now have,
completely release businesses that can't afford to pay rent,
to pay rent.
And, for those commercial landlords,
which I am also,
I sit in both caps.
I'm a commercial landlord and a commercial tenant.
We need to make sure that we have
mortgage repayment holidays.
Now, I've been given those mortgage repayment holidays
from my bank,
so I've passed on help to tenants where I can.
And, that is exactly what all commercial landlords
need to do.
And commercial landlords need to understand
that if they don't do this, they'll have no tenants,
because they won't have a business to come back to.
And, to that end, I've seen that the government have relaxed
in sovereignty laws.
They're about to bring in legislation
that allows directors to trade their business
in an insolvent position,
which they've never been able to do before.
Before, it was actually illegal to trade a business
if you knew it was going to go bust.
Now, everything changes.
So, just to sum up there, we wanna make sure there's
protection to tenants of properties
where they cannot pay their rent.
They need to have rent holidays,
so that they can re-trade when things go back to normal.
Let's move on.
The COVID-19 business loans, the coronavirus
business interruption loans scheme,
otherly known as SBLs.
These SBLs loans are really not
getting through to people.
There's a pot of about 330 billion pounds,
and so are only a few billions pounds of that money has
got to people.
For a number of reasons, I am speaking to lots
of business owners.
They're reluctant to take on short term debt.
You've got to pay your debt,
or your SBLs loan,
back over six years.
Considering you get the first year off of
interest and capital repayments,
that means you could be borrowing a lot of money,
and have to pay it back over just five short years.
Now, I understand common sense.
The government can't just keep on giving
more and more money away.
But, what they can do, is term that debt out.
I think that they should term the debt out over 10 years,
so that businesses have more manageable repayments.
Right, for us, we've gotta borrow 600,000 pounds,
and it might end up being 1,000,000 pounds
on a SBLs loan to help us work through
coronavirus business interruption.
Rather then paying that over five years,
if we can pay it over 10 years,
that means our business is gonna have so much more cash,
so much more sustainable,
so much more of a chance of riding it through.
The government have also been very helpful
with business rates.
If you're in leisure, retail, or hospitality,
then you don't have to pay business rates
for the next 12 months.
I was over the moon about this when this policy came out.
Oh, and then I realized we're closed.
So, actually, it doesn't really help us.
That 12 month business rates holiday
needs to start for when you trade.
Say, if your building had a fire or a flood,
and you wasn't allowed to trade
because of material change in circumstances,
you wouldn't have paid business rates anyway.
Take it from me, I've had a fire at one of our sites.
When the building was set up on fire,
we didn't have to pay business rates.
So, that 12 month holiday needs to start
from when you start trading,
otherwise, it's not a benefit to you.
And you're gonna need all the cash you can get
to market the businesses up.
Understand that we gonna have a slow trade
when everything goes back to normal,
because we've had nothing going on from before.
We've gotta restock up, retrain staff, pay utilities,
pay a big chunk of marketing,
because everyone is gonna be at this game.
So, just to confirm that,
start the the business rates holiday from when you trade.
Let's talk VAT.
I think the government should reduce VAT.
Gordon Brown done this in the last financial crisis.
It gets cash in people's pockets straight away
and it saves businesses cash flow.
Last time, when we were at VAT, at 15%,
that really massively helped us as a business,
it allowed us to pay people more money
and it allowed us to work through
that challenging time that was
the 2008, 2009 financial crisis.
Going further, I'd like to see the government
reduce VAT for certain sectors.
Especially a service based business.
I'm happy to increase the amount of VAT I pay
when I buy a product.
For example, a new TV, something like that, a new iPhone.
But, for a service, actually paying people for their time,
whether you can't claim any VAT back,
I would like to see a lower level of service VAT.
For leisure, tourism, hospitality,
those guys should be paying 12 1/2 percent,
and maybe if we go out and expend ourselves
and buy a brand new TV, happy to pay 22%.
It's the people that are working in the service industry
that are gonna get the hardest hit from this.
Deferring tax is something that the government can do,
and they have said that the next quarter's VAT
can be deferred and paid next year.
But, that means companies are gonna have
a huge bill next year.
I believe that they should defer any VAT in tax
that's due this year, if you can't afford to pay it,
on a means tested basis, and pay it over four years.
It's all about saving cash flow in businesses,
so these businesses can continue to open.
They can absolutely do this.
They only finished off paying off World War II in 2015.
So, they can absolutely can term out debt
for a long period of time.
And I believe they should use everything
in their arsenal to save jobs and drive the economy forward.
Also, talking about VAT,
I import a lot stuff from the far east,
and as soon as that stuff hits our shores we have to pay
the VAT on the value of those goods.
Why?
Like everything else, can't we just pay the VAT
when we sell it?
Now, they did say they was going to do this through
the Brexit negotiations, if we busted out with no deal.
So, they have the arsenal, they have the power to do that,
they're just cash flowing themselves.
Well, we need cash flowing as as a tax paying business.
So, get that one sorted,
you get your money back in a few months,
anyway, Mr. Government.
Come on.
Secondly, the property market is going to be stagnant.
People are going to be weary about property buying
because they're gonna to be worried about prices.
I am, too.
So, an overhaul of the stamp duty system
to make it much more fairer
and incentivize businesses to take on leases.
Not many people know this,
but even if you take on a commercial lease,
you have to pay stamp duty.
So, people are gonna be very worried about growing
their business because of those stamp duty costs.
In addition, when they're gonna go buy commercial property,
they're gonna be worried about the stamp duty,
and if that property is going to forward in price.
So, at the government's means,
is making sure they reduce stamp duty
to incentivize people in the next six, nine, 12 months
to invest in property,
grow their business, etc, etc.
I say invest in property,
and as a person that's very into property,
and invests in property,
I'm not keen for the stamp duty
to be reduced on the investment part of that property.
I know there's some people that follow me
and think, James why have you just that,
you've blown our market out.
I want the reduction in stamp duty to go people buying their
next home and to commercial business.
I don't want it to be for commercial investment.
So, if I'm buying a building that's going to employ people
and drive the economy forward, rather then investment,
then yes, I would like a stamp duty relief.
If I'm buying a property to invest,
to make my own personal wealth grow,
and I know you might say well that's what a business does,
I prefer stamp-duty to go to the people that want
to employ people and grow jobs,
if there is going to be some relief.
So, I'd like to see that from the government
so that people can plan.
You might be thinking here, well,
James, what about all of this money giving
stuff that you've been saying,
how's this gonna be afforded?
Well, number one, don't forget the government
only paid off World War I in 2015,
and this is the closest thing to a war.
So, I'd like the government to term
this stuff out as long as possible
so that we're not paying huge amounts
of tax in the next couple of years,
as we go through an economic recovery.
But, I have got an idea of someone
that could help pay this,
and that is digital services companies.
I'm seeing myself, my buying habits,
and I've spent loads on Amazon, and online shopping,
and I think that there should be just a small
one or two percent levy on digital shopping buying.
Because they've been going like gang busters
through coronavirus,
and I think we should get those guys to just help.
Lastly, I think governments should be putting
some real pressure on insurers.
For someone who was relying on business interruption claims
to help our business,
I haven't seen much forthcoming from our insurers.
I'm really hoping that the government really
put the pressure on insurers to cough up,
because that would game change everything.
So, use your legal powers Mr. Government,
make sure that insurers pay their fair share,
because I am not seeing that happen.
They've got assets,
and in this time of crisis,
when businesses are expecting insurers to help,
and they're not coughing up,
then we're in real trouble.
Now, I know what you're thinking as an insurer,
the premise of insurance is
the premiums of the many,
paid for the losses of the few.
And now, the premiums of the many
have gotta pay for the losses of the many,
we're in a stalemate situation.
So, my view is if the government
have got a 330 billion pound loan pot,
why don't they just give a 100 billion of that to insurers,
to insurers to divvy up amongst businesses
on a means tested basis.
They did something similar in the London riots.
So, they have done that before,
and they can do that again.
One of the things that the government have in their arsenal,
that they can do so easily,
is use the laws that they can create.
They've got more power than they've ever had before.
Surely, before we all went into lockdown,
the government put in some laws to give them extra powers,
more powers than they've ever had before,
to put laws in place.
One of the things that I think the government
should be using right now,
is with those new extra powers,
is give directors and companies
powers against nasty people
that are going to try and close companies down,
because not because of bad management,
but solely because of COVID-19.
There needs to be insolvency protection for good companies,
that were doing really well,
that are now struggling due to coronavirus.
Let's protect jobs, protect the economy,
allow companies to have protection against nasty landlords,
and nasty people trying to wind up companies
that have done nothing wrong,
other than just build great businesses
that have now had the plugs completely turned off of them.
And then, ladies and gents',
rounds up, what my beliefs are the government
should be doing.
Lastly, I would just like to add this,
if you're watching any more from the government,
remember, tax companies on profit don't tax turnover.
The turnover is gonna hurt cash flow
on businesses more than ever.
Stop taxing turn over, start taxing profit,
and you've got a chance of bringing our economy back,
and brooding, brilliant, businesses here
in the United Kingdom.
So, that's it gang, that is my summary
of what I think the government should be doing
to help businesses through COVID-19.
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Bye bye.
(music fades)