England is to enter into a new four-week national lockdown from Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December with the key message being for people to ‘stay at home’.
The government is taking the following action:
• Requiring people to stay at home, except for specific purposes.
• Preventing gathering with people you do not live with, except for specific purposes.
• Closing certain businesses and venues.
A full list of business closures is yet to be published and set out in law but it is expected that petrol stations and garages carrying out MOTs, services and repairs will again be classed as ‘essential’ and therefore allowed to remain open.
Vehicle showrooms and auction houses have been ordered to close.
In relation to traffic volumes, the advice is to avoid travelling in or out of your local area, with individuals encouraged to reduce the number of journeys made apart from situations such as travelling to work where this cannot be done from home, and travelling to education and for caring responsibilities.
The government also announced the furlough scheme – Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – has been extended with up to 80% of employees wages, up to £2500 a month, again covered by the scheme where necessary.
The guidance states: ‘Employers small or large, charitable or non-profit are eligible and because more businesses will need to close, they will now be asked to pay just National Insurance and Pensions contributions for their staff during the month of November – making this more generous than support currently on offer.’
The Job Support Scheme will now not be introduced until after Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends.
Meanwhile, Scotland’s new Covid restrictions are now in force. The regional system has five levels but each of the country’s 32 local authorities has initially been graded between levels one and three. People under level three restrictions can make only essential journeys outside their council area.
The new lockdown and restrictions are clearly a major concern to businesses across the nations. A snapshot survey on the ARC360 webinar on Wednesday 14 October highlighted that 75% of industry stakeholders believed the three-tier system of local restrictions would have a moderate to significant impact on the sector. And with only 33% of those who tuned in to the ARC360 webinar on Wednesday 28 October having experienced an increase in volumes in the second half of the month, undoubtedly further challenges lie ahead.
