Don’t expect an August rush back to offices, Boris warned

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told Tory MPs this week that workers must go back to support the cafes, restaurants, bars and shops that depend on their custom.

Simon Emeny, chief executive of pub chain Fuller’s, said he found walking around central London this week “very sad and depressing” and hoped Mr Johnson’s announcement would revive once-buzzing cities. 

“We certainly need people back in London and back in city centres. Following this announcement I would hope that the Mayor of London will then be supportive of people using public transport,” he said. 

However many large businesses face an uphill struggle to get staff back in. Mark Brown, the general secretary of Lloyds’ largest trade union BTU, said a recent survey of Lloyds staff found that 40pc never want to go back to the office again. The bank has 45,000 people working from home. 

“This has been a big massive experiment in terms of home working and lots of businesses have seen that it’s worked successfully. For three months the Government was scaring us half to death, saying don’t leave the house, so there won’t be a mad rush to get back,” he said. 

“[Boris] is going to have a difficult job getting people to go back to the same numbers as before – staff don’t want to do it and employers don’t want to do it.” 

However James Daunt, the managing director of Waterstones, said the Prime Minister’s announcement and the footfall from office workers is “very important for our city centre shops”, but safety came first. 

“Companies, including my own, will behave rationally and bring people back into their offices when they judge it is safe to do so. The Government should give clear, rational guidance to ensure consistent behaviours that are consistent with keeping the pandemic under control,” he said. 

Additional reporting by Hannah Uttley