UK equity income investing: How to make the most of it during a pandemic

Reversing the swift and brutal reckoning for UK dividends

UK equity market dividends have, in aggregate, been dominated for decades by a relatively small number of large businesses, some with poor economics.

Many of them have proven to be cyclical, far too capital intensive and frankly, have not grown. In desperately striving to provide a return to investors, many such companies have fallen into the trap of over-distributing dividends. These businesses have also often failed to adapt in the face of disruptive change.  Heading into 2020, around 50% of the UK market's collective income was projected to come from just ten companies, many of which had clear vulnerabilities to their business models. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought a swift and brutal reckoning for UK dividends, but the ingred...