Commenting ahead of the 1 June reopening date for car dealerships in England, Adrian Dally, Head of Motor Finance at the Finance & Leasing Association, said:

“With increasing numbers of people returning to work, the reopening of car dealerships will be very welcome. Motor finance lenders are vitally important to the motor industry, and they’re ready to support customer purchases as they did before the Covid-19 crisis.”

 Sue Robinson, Director at the NFDA added:

 “As lockdown measures start to ease, many of us will need cars to get back to work and it is crucial that automotive retailers are open to serve the workforce. They have been working hard to put all the necessary measures in place to ensure social distancing can be observed, and we look forward to welcoming customers back into showrooms”.

 Note to editors:

In 2019, FLA members provided £140.3 billion of new finance to UK businesses and households. £104.7 billion of this was in the form of consumer credit representing over a third of total new consumer credit written in the UK in 2019. £35.7 billion of finance was provided to businesses and the public sector. FLA members financed more than a third of UK investment in machinery, equipment and purchased software in the UK in 2019.

The National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) is the trade association representing franchised car and commercial vehicle retailers in the UK. The automotive retail sector is one of the pillars of the UK economy, it has a turnover of around £200 billion and employs 590,000 people. There are about 4,500 automotive franchised retailer outlets in the UK. NFDA is the voice of automotive retailers.

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