U.K. to Ease Lockdown Monday But Firms Say Reopening Is Hard
U.K. Could Ease Lockdown Monday With Firms Warning of Difficulty
(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. is set to ease parts of its nationwide lockdown Monday, with more freedom for people to leave their homes, but companies warned continued social distancing will hurt any economic recovery.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wants to start relaxing some measures next week “if we possibly can,” and will make a full statement on his plans on Sunday.
Under the changes, the government will stop ordering people to stay at home and allow them to sit or sunbathe in parks and exercise outdoors as much as they like, as long as they keep two meters apart from others. But officials cautioned the changes will be minor easements, rather than a big move to unlock the economy.
Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis said the public should “not to get too excited” about the extent of the changes. “We’ve got to make sure we have real caution as we go forward to make sure we protect people’s health as much as we possibly can,” he told BBC TV on Thursday. The prime minister’s Twitter account has already started using a new message which emphasizes “stay safe,” rather than “stay home.”
Johnson is under pressure to get the British economy moving again without causing another surge of the virus, after the U.K. became the first European nation to record more than 30,000 deaths from the pandemic.
Seeking to mitigate the growing economic damage of the coronavirus crisis, Johnson’s government is drawing up guidance for employers on how to return to work safely as part of relaxing lockdown restrictions.
In a sign of the challenges facing Britain, a survey of 800 companies by the Institute of Directors found only about half would be able to operate at full capacity under social distancing rules, and a majority would take more than a month to return to pre-lockdown activity levels even if all measures are lifted.
“Leaving lockdown, when it happens, won’t be plain sailing for business,” said Jonathan Geldart, director general of the IoD. “Social distancing presents an unprecedented challenge for firms, and some may be simply unable to make it work.”
The IoD’s findings temper some of the optimism from a similar British Chambers of Commerce survey this week, which suggested most U.K. businesses could be up and running days after restrictions are lifted. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is currently considering how to wind down some of the unprecedented economic support that has kept British companies afloat, amid warnings of mass insolvencies and redundancies if he moves too quickly.
Key to the next phase of the government’s plan is a mass program of testing and tracking coronavirus cases. With the help of an app, the aim is to be able to tell people who’ve been exposed to carriers of the virus they need to isolate, while allowing life to get back to normal. Johnson set a new goal to raise testing capacity to 200,000 a day by the end of the month, from about 108,000 now.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the greater testing capacity may allow for lockdown restrictions to be re-imposed in targeted areas if the virus flares up in future, but the government’s preference is for measures to be relaxed everywhere at once.
In other developments:
- People may be required to wear face masks on public transport and border checks could be introduced in the next phase of the U.K. response, the Financial Times reported
- Speaking on ITV’s “Peston” program, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the government will need to step in to stop companies from failing in the coming months
- Jenrick said the government wants infrastructure and construction work to re-commence as soon as it is safe to do so, and the pandemic won’t stop plans to boost investment in deprived areas of the U.K.
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