One of the biggest players in the personal injury market has admitted it must make huge savings to offset a significant fall in new cases.

NAH Group, which runs a claims management business as well as running its own claims through Your Law, Law Together and National Accident Law, told the London Stock Exchange yesterday there had been a ‘significant reduction’ in new enquiries since the coronavirus outbreak. The group’s critical care business has remained ‘resilient’ with just a small drop in work, while the residential property business has suffered in line with the rest of the UK housing market.

The announcement conceded these challenges will impact the business in both the short and long term.

It added: ‘The board has taken a number of measures including reducing property and lease costs, leveraging IT to support broader based home working, delaying capital expenditure and optimising the structure of the business to maximise efficiencies. 

‘Across these initiatives, management are targeting significant annualised cash savings.’

The group has furloughed around one-third of its staff through the government’s job retention scheme. Members of the group’s leadership team have voluntarily taken a temporary salary cut of between 10 and 20%, while the board has taken a 20% reduction in salaries or fees. The group has also deferred its annual salary review.

The NAH statement added: ‘The board is extremely grateful for the sacrifices made by its employees in the current crisis and greatly appreciates the positive attitude shown by all staff.’

Last month, the group announced a delay in issuing its final results for 2019 following guidance from the stock exchange and Financial Conduct Authority. Now the reporting moratorium has been lifted, NAH will publish its final results during the last week in April.

The group’s shares fell around 14% following the announcement. Shares were trading at 37p, having been worth more than 100p at the start of this year.