Hood's condition and the cost of raider coverage

How much did losing Hood affect the Royal Navy's ability to counter German surface raiders?

Her speed was valuable, but the deeper problem was inadequate prewar refit funding and too few modernized heavy ships to cover every possible route.

Hood could still move quickly, making her valuable in a pursuit, but her delayed modernization left known weaknesses unresolved. This was part of a wider prewar funding problem in which governments expected diplomacy to avert the need for expensive refits and new construction. The Royal Navy needed more than a one-for-one match because it had to patrol multiple exits and trade routes, including the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap, while the raider chose its route. Losing Hood therefore removed both a fast heavy unit and a scarce piece of the geographic coverage required to contain German surface ships.