As the Covid pandemic continues, swathes of the UK face local lockdown measures designed to lower rates of infection.
This week, London, York and other retail centres were placed under Tier 2 restrictions, while a political battle raged over whether Manchester should join Liverpool in Tier 3, where the strictest measures are in force.
But will such moves bring a halt to retail’s recovery? Industry experts share their views.
Mark Constantine, chief executive, Lush
No. Despite the responsibility to socially distance and trace customers should Covid appear in any of our shops, we are still enjoying month-on-month growth. Tier-3 Liverpudlians are out shopping and enjoying watching the new Batman being filmed in the town centre, even if they can’t go clubbing. Rebellious as ever, their gyms are crowdfunding to pay the fines as they stay open.
Business in central London is still a shadow of itself and will remain so until the railways substantially reduce fares and offices go beyond 30% occupancy.
Online business is booming and in the UK has been at plus-400% in the past few days. Lush is normally much busier towards the end of the Christmas period, so we are very grateful to get so much interest so early.
Jace Tyrrell, chief executive, New West End Company
In London, the physical, mental and economic health of the city is on a knife edge. We firmly believe the government must strive to ensure first that the current national measures and track and trace are working consistently and being enforced correctly before increasing restrictions that will only be detrimental to our central London retailers and businesses.
Our top priority is the safety of our colleagues and customers and the one in 10 Londoners who work in our district, and sufficient measures have been put in place to ensure that those who visit are safe and secure.
As London moves into Tier 2, to ensure retail can survive, it is more important than ever to reassure the public that shops and high streets are still very much open for all and to encourage people to support London businesses responsibly, to help protect hundreds of thousands of jobs and ensure the future resilience and recovery of the capital.
Julian Dunkerton, chief executive, Superdry
It would have been more sensible to have a two-week circuit breaker lockdown now and again in January. The reality is this measure still means we are in nowhereland the R rate is still not below one.
I do not believe the measures we are taking now are enough to get us below that threshold. A proper lockdown with proper furlough and a clear national statement of what we need to do would be best for everyone. What we have now is a dripfeed of ambiguity.
On a human level and on a business level, it would make the most sense. There is no protecting your business if your shoppers aren’t clear on what they can or cannot do and where they can and cannot go.
We should be slightly more clinical about the whole thing. If you are clear with people they will do what they are told, but it seems like ambiguity will be Boris Johnson’s death knell.
Tim Martin, chair, Wetherspoons
It appears that the government and its advisers were clearly uncomfortable as the country emerged from lockdown. They have introduced, without consultation, under emergency powers, an ever-changing raft of ill-thought-out regulations – these are extraordinarily difficult for the public and publicans to understand and to implement. None of the new regulations appear to have any obvious basis in science.
The recent curfew and introduction of table service only have been particularly damaging for trade, depressing sales for customers who find it too much faff, at the same time as substantially increasing costs. As a result of recent changes in regulations, the outlook for pubs over the remainder of the current financial year is even more unpredictable than hitherto.
The company and the entire hospitality industry need a more sensible and consistent regulatory framework in which to operate – the current environment of lockdowns, curfews and constantly changing regulations and announcements threatens not only pub companies but the entire economy.
The most important lesson, as Professor Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University has said, is that “lockdown just defers the problem; it doesn’t solve it”.
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