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HOSPITALITY
Pubs and restaurant bosses face a battle for survival after being told they cannot reopen until April 12.
Up to six people from separate households could be able to meet then in beer gardens with no need to order food. Alcohol takeaways will also be available.
But food and drink will not be served indoors until May 17.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, said apart from a couple of weeks in December, the sector will have been closed for nearly 200 days since November.
She said: This delay in reopening will make the job of survival all the more difficult for businesses only just clinging on to existence.
All non-essential retail will reopen in April – but customers will have to shop alone. The Government has said the reopening of the indoor economy, which employs around 1.2 million people, from April 12 will restore jobs and enable people to access important activities and services. However, wider social distancing rules will apply in all these settings as they reopen as part of Step 2 of the roadmap out of lockdown. It means customers visiting shops, which are predominantly indoor spaces, will have to do so either alone or with their household groups. While the news that non-essential retail will reopen was welcomed, the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) voiced disappointment with the designated April 12 date. Andrew Goodacre, the Bira CEO, said: "Whilst it is good for us to have a date, we are very disappointed that non-essential shops will miss the Easter period, especially as they also missed out on most of the busy festive period." He called on Rish
Retail footfall will ‘rebound’ after lockdown restrictions lift Print
There will be a “swift rebound” in retail footfall when non-essential stores re-open, a retail expert predicts.
The prediction comes as prime minister Boris Johnson set out his four-step plan to release England from lockdown, which sees schools reopen on 8 March, outdoor sports start from 29 March, non-essential shops, hairdressers and gyms reopen from 12 April, and all legal limits on social contact end from 21 June.
Evidence from retail analytics consultancy Ipsos Retail Performance shows that shoppers were slow to return to non-essential stores after the first lockdown was lifted in June 2020. In stores that re-opened in that first week footfall was only a third (32%) of levels the previous year.
Published on
A month after all ‘non-essential’ retailers were forced to close their doors, research conducted by retail analysts, Maybe Tech suggests that over half of consumers feel that the government is still not doing enough to support high street businesses.
The survey, which had 2,000 respondents and was conducted in late January, also found that 85 per cent of shoppers are concerned that their favourite high street businesses may not survive the latest national lockdown.
When asked whether they felt that the government is doing enough to support the retail and hospitality sector on their high street, 31 per cent of respondents said that the government is ‘not doing enough’, while a further 22 per cent stated that the government is ‘definitely not doing enough’.