With regards the Business loans is the government not just falling in line with the French announcement or are the French giving the money away. I am more concerned that that these loans will attract interest. It will also be interesting to know if the banks that are offering mortgage holidays will they also expect interest on those months I would hope not. I am sure that the grants announced will be warmly welcomed, however, it seems still nothing for the self employed ??

Do you understand anything about basic economics ?
A 90k/month TURNOVER business, suddenly dropping to 5k, without any change to their cost structure isn't going to last very long, especially if this happens overnight.
Unless the business is cash rich and has huge reserves in the bank, which would be very unusual, they are instantly on the brink.
Also, having seen a 90% drop in turnover in one month, what do you think happens next month ?

You actually scare me with your absolute lack of knowledge.

Stick to the ill informed quips and try not to embarrass yourself any further

laughable, even for a complete hard of thinking individual like you. I understand TURNOVER, and 90K TURNOVER should yield a PROFIT. Stick to your sanatogen and werthers diet, you petrify me with your closed mind idealist view, ignoring how the world [ireally[/i works. I hope envy and hate of all things progressive and profitable keeps you warm at night.

Are you stupid or what - so they have business that makes 10% net profit which is pretty good - let's say material costs are 30% that still leaves costs of 54k so in 4 weeks you have costs >£200k which will need to be paid - the equivalent of 24 weeks profits. Its not a difficult calculation to understand

If ive got this right and following the announcement by the Foreign Office today via Mr Raab, that advises that we don't travel abroad unless absolutely necessary.

Therefore, If we don't go on a previously booked trip on government advice, we cannot claim on our travel insurance because the government hasn't told us we can't go just advised not to.
We cannot claim on the booking agent if they are still willing to take us.
So if we do go so as not to lose our money, the government can wipe their hands of us if that country brings in restrictions because they advised us not to go in the first place.
Or am I just being cynical

where are these costs coming from if they are not trading?

Rent, rates, staff, insurance, utilities, security R&M etc. all the usual business overheads

54K a month, 60% of turnover, some pretty naff business model.

I’d be surprised if staff costs alone didn’t account for close to 60% of turnover at the company I work for.

Pay less and we couldn’t recruit or retain people as we need to. Try to charge clients much more and they’ll go to our competitors.

The only way you can claim off a travel policy is if your flight is cancelled because the government of the U.K. or the country you are visiting stop all flights or entry. If you decide just not to without either of these conditions then you will lose your money.
I am due to travel to Portugal in April and I have been offered a chance to change my flights but if I did so now I could not reclaim any other costs.
It is the same with BI cover, I believe the government said you can claim however I hope they have agreed this with the insurance sector.
With regards travel cover if you have not taken out cover by now I regret the virus will be excluded.

If you have something booked for the next 2 months or so, wait. It's highly likely there will be almost zero aircraft in the skies in a week or two as airlines start to ground fleets and therefore cancel almost all flights. Many have grounded significant proportions of their fleets, some have stopped operating altogether. Some will never come back from this, but that's another discussion.

If the airline or tour operator cancels, you get a full refund. If you cancel while the flight is still scheduled to operate, you only get money back as per fare rules, perhaps minus a fee or only just a few taxes - often regardless of political advice at either end. Some airlines are holding out on some routes and keeping the flights scheduled in the hope passengers will cancel and they keep the money. Emirates is one. We'll have to see if they cancel at short notice.

If they offer a free change to later in year - up to you. Take it or insist on a full refund, after all they can't fulfil the flight.

Will insurance pay? Depends on your policy. Based on the "all but essential travel" advice some will - but some won't. No policies taken out from this week will.

And remember things are changing hour to hour. It may - and probably will - reach the point of instruction rather than advice, and then total lockdown in which case insurance should almost certainly pay if the airlines play hardball.

Right now anyone living in the UK travelling overseas for anything other than a truly critical or COVID19-related reason needs a slap.