U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is being asked by members of the ruling Conservative Party to take his time to pay off the record debt the country is racking up as it tries to weather the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. By that, they mean decades. With the economy on course for its deepest recession for at least a century, the government is now paying the wages of more than 10 million workers to stave off mass unemployment.

British fashion retailers Monsoon and Accessorize will close 35 stores, make 545 staff redundant and seek rent cuts for remaining shops as part of a restructuring led by its founder to survive the COVID-19 crisis, Reuters reported. Administrators from business advisory firm FRP were appointed late on Tuesday and immediately sold the companies’ business and assets to Adena Brands, a company ultimately controlled by Peter Simon, who owned and founded Monsoon in 1973. The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent national lockdown had made the business unviable.

British businesses have borrowed nearly 35 billion pounds under three emergency credit programmes for companies hit by the coronavirus crisis with demand strongest for a 100% state-backed scheme for the smallest firms, Reuters reported. After a recent warning by lenders that some of the borrowing might prove unsustainable for companies hit by the COVID lockdown, the Treasury said total lending under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) rose to 23.8 billion pounds by June 7 from 21.3 billion pounds by May 31. That represented a slightly smaller increase than in the previous week.

TheCityUK — a collection of the Square Mile’s titans — calculates the weight of unsustainable debt on UK company balance sheets is above £107bn and it could turn toxic unless neutralised, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Almost in the same breath, Anne Richards, head of Fidelity, warns that asset managers can’t, unlike the Titan Atlas, hold up the sky and recapitalise the entire UK economy. Companies are queueing up to ease the strains on their balance sheets as a result of coronavirus and lockdown.

Intu shopping centre in Milton Keynes could begin an insolvency process by the end of the month as debts have worsened during the Covid-19 crisis, it has been revealed, the MK Citizen reported. The shopping giants, who also owns the Trafford Centre and Lakeside, have put administrators on standby, Sky News has reported. All the centres are said to be in jeopardy unless the company can strike a deal with lenders over the next couple of weeks. Intu Properties is at a critical phase in negotiations and has lined up KPMG to act as administrators if the talks fail, says Sky News.

Housebuilders in the UK are collapsing at an accelerating rate, threatening the much-needed supply of new homes, the Financial Times reported. Last year 368 companies in the sector filed for insolvency, according to data obtained from The Insolvency Service under the Freedom of Information Act. That compares with 207 in 2016, with the number rising each year since. The builders filing for insolvency were overwhelmingly small and medium sized enterprises, according to accountants Price Bailey, which obtained the data.

Businesses centring on travel and hospitality have endured a nightmare start to 2020. With the global outbreak of coronavirus, and the international lock-down ushered in to slow its spread, every aspect of the leisure sector has been battered by Covid-19-related headwinds, Consultancy.uk reported. In the airline segment for example, 700 of Lufthansa’s fleet of 760 planes have been grounded amid the coronavirus lock-down, with the number of passengers falling by 99%.

The U.K. car industry joined in a round of job cuts that has swept Europe, with auto companies looking to downsize to cope with lower sales following the Covid-19 pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc said Thursday it plans to eliminate almost 20% of the workforce, or as many as 500 positions, to cope with a slump in demand for luxury cars. Manchester-based vehicle-distributor Lookers Plc will close 12 sites and shed about 1,500 employees, while McLaren Group Ltd. said last week the supercar maker is seeking to cut about 1,200 jobs.

The UK government could face hefty losses on loans made to struggling businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic due to its new insolvency law that can force lenders to accept unfavourable terms during a debt restructuring process, Reuters reported. The new ‘Restructuring Plan’, part of the government’s Corporate Insolvency & Governance Bill being debated in parliament this week, empowers one class of creditors to force a debt restructuring plan on another class of creditors, in what is known as a cross class cramdown.

The coronavirus pandemic will reset the balance between private companies and the state in Britain and could in time produce a more productive economy, according to the man leading a 15 billion pound drive to support smaller firms, Reuters reported. Stephen Welton, head of Business Growth Fund (BGF), the most active investor in fast-growing British companies, is talking to the government, insurance companies, pension schemes and other investors to recapitalise businesses and prevent more permanent scarring. Central to any recovery, he believes, is the need to identify which compan