Quarter of firms have temporarily closed or stopped trading during the coronavirus lockdown

According to the ONS survey, 24% of firms reported they had temporarily closed or paused trading for the period March 23 to April 5, 0.3% reported permanently ceasing trading, while 75% were continuing to trade.

The figures emerged as the UK Government came under fire from its political opponents over banks having approved less than half of applications for its guaranteed coronavirus loans.

Meanwhile, Downing St revealed that there had been 435,000 applications to the Government’s furlough scheme, which it said covered 3.2 million workers at a cost of £3.75 billion.

According to the ONS survey, two-thirds of firms which are continuing to trade said their financial performance was outside of their “normal” range with 93% of these saying their turnover was lower than “normal”.

Of those businesses that continued to trade or had paused trading, 94% indicated an interest in at least one of the UK Government schemes on offer to them; the scheme that was declared of interest most often was the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which enables firms to furlough workers with the taxpayer picking up 80 per cent of wages, up to £2,500 a month.

Of all the responding businesses continuing to trade, 60% said they were confident they had sufficient financial resources available while only 6% did not feel confident this was the case.

The statistics came as the hospitality sector warned that an extended period of social distancing restrictions could cost one million jobs in the sector unless measures to protect businesses were put in place.

UKHospitality, the sector’s leading trade association, said pubs and other businesses would not be able to operate profitably if social distancing had to be observed.

Downing St made clear that the remark by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, about restrictions probably continuing for the “next calendar year” referred only to the end of 2020 and not for another full 12 months.

Nonetheless, pubs, hotels and restaurants will balk at the idea of social restrictions continuing for another eight months or so.

UKHospitality has written to Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, recommending a plan to help the country's pubs and restaurants reopen following the crisis and save jobs and businesses.

The letter stressed the need for a phased approach to avoid a "yo-yo effect" of openings and closings, which could see businesses fail and up to a million jobs lost.

The six-point plan sets out the level of support the sector needs to reintegrate into the economy, to avoid mass redundancies and to ensure local businesses and high-street brands can survive.

Recommendations included extending the Government's furlough scheme beyond the end of June for hospitality businesses, legislative intervention on rent payments, improved access to capital and an overhaul of business regulation.

Kate Nicholls, the association’s Chief Executive, said: "With social distancing measures still in place, reopening the hospitality sector without a plan would be catastrophic.

"The hospitality sector was one of the first hit by the crisis and the hardest hit in terms of lost revenue. It will also be one of the last to fully emerge from the lockdown.

"An extended period of social distancing will mean that many hospitality businesses will not be able to operate fully, and many will not be able to open at all. Hospitality is a sector built around socialising, so there must be Government support for businesses that continue to be hit by this crisis,” she added.

Emma McClarkin for the British Beer & Pub Association said: "Pubs are the original social network, so reopening them with social distancing restrictions is going to be extremely difficult, for staff and customers alike.

"It's clear that the Government are going to need to give pubs special consideration for a re-start as well as specific support just for them.

"The Job Retention Scheme must continue for pubs throughout their closure along with a 'back to work' scheme with the same level of support when they can reopen. Such measures will save jobs whilst the trade slowly recovers.”

Ms McClarkin said when businesses could reopen, trade could be down by as much as half and will take time for consumer confidence to build up again.

Earlier, UK Finance, representing the banking and finance sector, said it had so far provided over £2.8bn of lending to small and medium-sized enterprises through the Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme[CBILS].

Total lending under the loan scheme had doubled in the week from April 14 with an increase of £1.45bn. Over 9,000 loans had been provided in the same period with the total number approved increasing by almost 120 per cent to over 16,600. However, this remains less than half of the completed applications of more than 36,000, which the lenders had received.

Stephen Jones, Chief Executive of UK Finance, insisted the banking and finance sector understood the critical role it had in helping businesses through the current tough times and stressed frontline staff had been “working tirelessly to get money to those viable businesses that need it as quickly as possible”.

“We stand ready to support many more businesses in the weeks ahead and will continue to work closely with the Government to ensure businesses can access the support they need,” he added.

But Labour’s Ed Miliband said the loan scheme was “in no way equal to the scale of economic distress facing our firms”.

The Shadow Business Secretary said: “Providing 16,000 loans in four weeks in a country of nearly six million SMEs is not good enough.

“In an average week last year there was more than £1bn of new SME lending. The fact that CBILS are now only at that level at a time of the worst economic emergency in our lifetimes is a clear sign that they are inadequate.”

He added: “The Government must recognise the scheme is not working adequately and change it urgently. The future of many of our small firms depends on its decisions.”

The SNP said the level of loans to businesses was “woeful”.

Nationalist backbencher Alan Brown, who sits on the Commons Business Committee, said: “Alan Brown MP said: “This crisis is a crucial time for the UK Government to take the pressure off business but the support laid out by Westminster means that struggling businesses are missing out on billions of pounds of vital funding.

“Business and industry has been clear: they need urgent financial support to get them through this difficult time. While current support risks a forgotten majority left behind by the UK Government, the time for action is now.”

He added: “The UK Government must commit to working with the financial sector to ensure that no-one is left behind. The SNP will continue to press for action to ensure that cash gets into the hands of those who need it to protect our economy from lasting damage.”

Earlier, appearing before a virtual session of the committee, Alok Sharma, the Business Secretary, insisted people had to look at the “totality” of the help the Government was offering after it was noted that Switzerland had reportedly given out 98,000 loans, almost six times that of the UK, which were 100% guaranteed by the state.

“You have to look at the totality of what we are offering,” declared Mr Sharma. “If you look at what the Swiss are offering in terms of fiscal stimulus, as I understand, the majority of it has gone through these particular loan schemes.”

He acknowledged the need to "get more loans out there" but said that the number of accredited lenders had gone up to 48.