Boris must lead us out of a fool’s paradise

DURING lockdown, a host of heroes stepped out of their front doors and risked their lives to keep Britain running: among others, nurses, cleaners, delivery drivers and supermarket staff.

With coronavirus receding and restrictions easing, the professional classes seem troublingly reticent to follow the lead of these blue-collar lionhearts and return to their offices.

Of course, some will be sincerely frightened of Covid-19. Most, however, have become accustomed to their comfortable lifestyles. Sitting at home in front of the laptop. No elbowed ribs during costly commutes. And more time with the family. What’s not to like about working from home? This, though, is a fool’s paradise. In a significant intervention today, Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, directorgeneral of the Confederation of British Industry, which represents nearly 200,000 businesses, warns that unless the nation rapidly returns to normal working, we will sleepwalk into economic annihilation.

Yes, she says, working from home has, for lots of firms and employees, been a ‘resounding success’.

But starkly she adds: ‘The UK’s offices are vital drivers of the economy. Yet some of our busiest city centres resemble ghost towns.’ If workplaces don’t jolt back into life ‘we will look back with regret at the jobs lost, training missed and communities harmed’.

Her message is blunt. This risks holing below the waterline Britain’s recovery.

Yet so far, the country’s most powerful firms are unlocking their glass towers at a snail’s pace. Instead of invoking a ‘can-do’ spirit, these companies are a study in timidity.

Some executives claim this whitecollar insurrection could last years. Are they mad? By that time, the economy will have ossified. The notion that people can replicate the working experience from home is fanciful. A lack of social interaction means commerce opportunities are lost. While UK offices remain closed, foreign competitors drum up trade at their desks.

The careers of young employees, who miss out on face-to-face training and mentoring that can’t be duplicated by a bedroom Zoom call, also suffer. This reluctance to return to the real world (a study finds one in four employees want to work from home permanently) poses a threat to livelihoods.

Already since March, around 750,000 people have been made redundant. On top of that, retail jobs are being slashed at the fastest rate since the recession a decade ago.

The lifeblood of countless small businesses, created with entrepreneurial zeal, is commuters and bustling offices. Denuded of passing trade, they’ll be forced to pull down the shutters for good. By winter, unemployment could top four million — worse than in the 1980s. The horrific impact will be felt for generations

The economy is not some abstract concept involving men in bowler hats. Without it, society unravels. Prosperity ensures roads are repaired, the NHS is there for the sick, the elderly are cared for and the police can fight crime.

So it is profoundly depressing that the response of the professional classes to the looming crisis, with Britain buckling under £2 trillion of debt, is to obsess about their own work-life balances. It is as delusional as fiddling while Rome burns. What, then, must the Government do to get the commuting class to emulate nurses, cleaners and delivery drivers and get back to work?

Dame Carolyn, and the CBI, believe they have solutions.

Boris Johnson, they say, must go the extra mile to build confidence.

First, schools must re-open — and stay open — so parents can do their jobs without childcare worries.

Next, the Government must shout louder that public transport is safe. Face mask use on trains, buses and tubes must be enforced. And flexible tickets should be introduced so commuters aren’t left out of pocket.

Then, workplace testing should be rolled out urgently for staff. That, plus a focus on hygiene and social distancing in the workplace, would help many overcome Covid concerns.

Boris must trumpet successes fighting the infection. Deaths are under ten a day; hospitalisations and infection rates are tiny.

The Prime Minister must deploy his oratory to galvanise the workforce. Their fear, as contagious as the virus itself, is a roadblock to recovery.

Meanwhile, why not invite the bosses of Britain’s blue- chip companies into Downing Street to help tackle the problem (although he’d be on firmer ground if he’d managed to get Whitehall civil servants back to their posts)?

Above all, he must start making quick, rational decisions — and stick to them. The conveyor belt of U-turns in No 10 might soon alarm the public, let alone Tory MPs. An easy win would be allowing Covid tests at airports. Avoiding the need to quarantine arrivals would fire up a tourism industry haemorrhaging money.

It’s all very well ministers asking employers to show ‘flexibility’, but if the national recovery stalls, staff who are happier staying at home might no longer have jobs.

Then they’d find themselves sitting amid home comforts rather more than they’d intended.