BACK TO THE OFFICE
Work from home order DROPPED from July 19 as Boris Johnson lifts Covid restrictions in boost for high street
BORIS Johnson has announced that the work from home rule will be SCRAPPED from July 19 in a boost for the high street.
Brits will be heading back to the office later this month in a bid to make city centres “buzz again”.
🔵 Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest updates
1
In a press conference this evening, Mr Johnson said that Britain's vaccine rollout will allow ministers to swap "Government diktats" with the public's "individual judgement" - but stressed "the pandemic is far from over".
Forced mask wearing will be ditched as well as all limits on large gatherings and social distancing.
Current guidance states that employees who can work from home must do so - despite swathes of the economy being open.
But the rules will change from July 19 to allow firms to tell employees how and where they should work.
In a showering of freedoms on July 19, the PM confirmed tonight:
- Hefty fines for refusing to wear a mask indoors will be dropped as face mask laws binned - but coverings will still be recommended for crowded spaces
- All legal limits restricting social contact will be torn up, such as the rule of six or rule of 30 outside
- Work from home guidance will be dropped in favour of firms' discretion
- Pub rules will be binned - with table service scrapped and social distancing ending
- Strict caps on care home visitors will be ditched - but PPE will stay
- ALL adults will now get their second jab after eight weeks, down from 12
- The one metre plus social distancing rule will be binned - except for ports and for people who have Covid
- It means festivals and full stadiums will finally be able to make a return after lifting all limits on mass events
- Covid certificates will be binned - but individual places can still demand them if they want
- Ministers will announce school bubble rules and holiday quarantine updates later this week
- Doubled jabbed Brits will soon escape isolation rules if they are in contact with a positive case
Ministers will shift the emphasis onto “personal responsibility” rather than enforced rules as the country emerges from the pandemic.
The move comes as a boost for city centres, with many businesses seeing a plunge in revenue due to the lack of commuters.
A final decision on whether to press ahead with lockdown lifting in two weeks will be made on July 12, but the PM said he expects to go ahead with it as planned.
The PM tonight acknowledged that scrapping the rules was a risk, but said: "If we don't go ahead now, when the summer fire break is coming up, the school holidays, all the advantages, that that should give us in fighting the virus, the question is, when will we go ahead?"
A group of business leaders yesterday urged the PM to "set the country clearly on the path to recovery" by encouraging a return to the office.
The letter, organised by lobby group London First, said that businesses wanted to see city centres "buzz again" after July 19.
It reads: "Our economic recovery will only succeed if the government commits to reviving our city centres."
Those signing the letter included Heathrow and Gatwick airport chief executives John Holland-Kaye and Stewart Wingate and BT boss Philip Jansen.
Many employees have been working from home since the beginning of the pandemic, despite a brief change in the guidance last summer.
Ministers encouraged employees to return to the workplace in August but were forced to U-turn after a steep rise in cases just a month later.
It comes as Boris Johnson unveiled his post-lockdown blueprint to give anxious businesses time to prepare for the grand reopening later this month.
But he warned that "the pandemic is far from over" and "we must reconcile ourselves, sadly, to more deaths from Covid".
Up to 50,000 cases a day may become reality in the weeks ahead as the virus continues to spread through those who have not had both jabs.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Health secretary Sajid Javid yesterday said that while the economic arguments for opening up were well known, for him the health arguments were "equally compelling".
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Javid said it was time to "find ways to cope with" the virus, like the country does flu.
Jenrick says face masks will be a 'personal choice' under 'much more permissive regime' of measures
Topics