The owner of Holiday Inn has said that around half of its hotels across Europe and other regions have closed as the coronavirus sweeps across continents.

InterContinental Hotels revealed that 50% of its hotels in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australia have shut their doors, with 10% of its US hotels are also currently closed.

The group said the sites that remain open are struggling, with an occupancy rate in the low-to-mid 20% range.

The company has tried to shore up its financial position ahead of a meagre set of results, due early next month.

It has tapped into the Bank of England's lending scheme designed to help struggling larger businesses through the crisis.

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InterContinental said it had issued £600 million in commercial paper - short-term loans designed to fund companies' day-to-day business - as part of the Covid Corporate Financing Facility.

It has also committed to keeping $400 million (£322 million) in assets that are easy to sell off to convert into cash until June 30 next year.

It warned that this would take a serious chunk out of the business's financial results for the first quarter.

They expect to show investors a 55% drop in global revenue per available room, a key measure in the hotel sector, when results are released on May 7.

It will contribute to a 25% drop across the three months as a whole, InterContinental warned.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the hotel giant in China, where all but 12 of its hotels have reopened.

Last month InterContinental reported that revenue per available room was down 90% in the February, as dozens of its 470 sites in the country closed.

Another of Britain's biggest housebuilders has announced plans to reopen its building sites in May, after a pause to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Redrow, which has more than 100,000 homes to its name, will start mobilising again from May 11, the company revealed on Monday.

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The business has been closed from March 27, around the same time as many of its main rivals also closed their doors.

Just two weeks ago, Redrow boss John Tutte said he did not expect work would restart until July.

Redrow builders will now pick up their tools from May 18, after a week of mobilisation, Redrow said.

It is satisfied their builders will be able to meet the Government's requirements on social distancing while on-site.

It has set up an online course for staff on what precautions to take. There will also be dedicated Covid-19 supervisors on site, signage and personal protective equipment.

Executive chairman John Tutte said on Monday: "The safety and welfare of our workforce and customers is our main priority.

"I am grateful to my colleagues and our supply chain partners for the exceptional work they continue to undertake to ensure we can make a measured, responsible and safe return to work next month."

The news follows similar moves by Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry, the company formerly known as Bovis Homes.

Start-up leaders are calling for more support for the tech industry as they warn many companies are under "immediate existential threat" due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A survey of more than 100 technology start-up founders and senior executives in Scotland found that more than nine in 10 (95%) said the pandemic had already had a negative impact on their businesses.

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More than half (53%) said they were experiencing a significant or severe impact.

Asked what measures they would need to take due to the impact of the virus, 38% said furloughing staff, half (50%) said freezing or scaling back hiring, while one in five (21%) said redundancies.

More than half (52%) of those questioned in the Turing Fest survey said the Scottish Government is currently doing too little to support entrepreneurs.

Alongside the survey results, in an open letter to the Scottish Government, more than 50 Scottish start-up chief executives and founders said that "the current interventions, from both the Scottish and UK governments, will not adequately address the unique needs of high-growth Scottish tech companies".

In the letter they called on the Scottish Government to "act now to protect Scotland's entrepreneurial future so we do not lose a generation of high-growth start-ups to Covid-19."

Brian Corcoran, chief executive of Turing Fest, said: "Tech start-ups can play a key role in rebuilding Scotland's economy after this pandemic passes, but unless there is immediate intervention from the Scottish Government, many start-ups will not survive and the ecosystem that the Government, and others, have worked so hard to cultivate could be decimated."

In the letter they warn that many of Scotland's tech companies and the thousands of high value jobs they provide are under immediate existential threat due to the "economic shock" from the pandemic.

Asked what kind of support the tech sector needs, survey respondents called for more direct financial support.

Almost eight in 10 (79%) said they wanted to see the government offer bridge grants to help businesses maintain their operations, 67% called for expanded research and development/innovation grants, and 59% identified employee wage subsidies as a key support mechanism.

uring Fest said Scotland's digital economy businesses employ almost 100,000 people and contribute £6.6 billion to the economy.
The survey questioned 106 founders and executives of start-up and scale-up technology businesses based in Scotland, with survey results collected between April 13 and 22 2020.

The Scottish Government has been asked for comment.