The landlord of a popular Maldon pub has told of his new hope after the Supreme Court ruled insurance companies should pay businesses over losses from lockdown one.

The court ruling today (Friday, 15 January) will mean that thousands of small businesses across the country will receive pay outs from claims made to cover some of their losses.

These include loss of business resulting from enforced shutdown for the period starting in March last year and running through until the re-opening of non-essential retail, personal care services and hospitality businesses was permitted at various dates in the early summer.

Claims under 'business interruption' insurance policies held by many small and independent firms were largely deemed invalid because it could not be proven that a confirmed case of Covid-19 had been found on the premises.

The ruling is likely to cost insurance companies hundreds of millions of pounds after the finance regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), brought a test case involving eight different insurance companies. It is understood that the companies, which agreed to take part in the test case, will now pay out on all claims made valid under the ruling as quickly as possible.

Responding to the news James Burrell-Cook, landlord of the Queen Victoria pub in Spital Road, said he had been left "hopeful" by the announcement after the pub's insurers initially said that they wouldn't pay out as Covid-19 hadn't been confirmed on the premises. He now faces a wait to see whether the pub's claim will be accepted.

Mr Burrell-Cook added: "It seemed ridiculous as we were forced to close by law to prevent the spread of the disease.

"The government and council grants have been really helpful, but they are not enough on their own and it doesn't seem right that we should be supported only by public money when we had paid to be insured.

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"We have already lost out on tens of thousands of pounds of grant, too, because our rateable value was £1 below where it needed to be to get the higher amount, so this money will help us in paying our staff, as well as being helpful for our suppliers and landlords."

Many of Maldon's High Street independent businesses, as well as those in other parts of the town and district, are likely to be affected by the ruling.