IT’S A TRAGEDY... NEW LOCKDOWN BUSINESS DISMAY AS TO COST UK BILLIONS
THE cancellation of Christmas for millions of people will be “devastating” for retail and hospitality, costing billions of pounds and putting thousands of jobs at risk, say industry bosses.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson put huge swathes of south-east and east England, including London, into a new Tier 4 from this morning with the order to “stay at home” for Christmas.
All non-essential shops in Tier 4 were told to close, along with hairdressers, nail bars, indoor gyms and leisure facilities.
Wales was put into lockdown from midnight last night, instead of from December 28 as had been planned, due to fears of a new variant of Covid-19 increasing transmission.
Business leaders branded the Prime Minister’s announcement an “absolute tragedy”.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “The consequences of this decision will
‘This move is an absolute tragedy’
be severe. For businesses, the Government’s stop-start approach is deeply unhelpful – this decision comes only two weeks after the end of the last national lockdown and right in the middle of peak trading which so many are depending on to power their recovery.
“Faced with this news – and the prospect of losing £2billion per week in sales for the third time this year – many businesses will be in serious difficulty and many thousands of jobs could be at risk.”
Westminster City Council, which covers parts of central London including Oxford Street, warned businesses were now “staring into the abyss” after the lockdown announcement.
Tory council leader Rachael Robathan said: “On every level this is devastating: for our residents; for families who will now miss Christmas; for those young people who can’t leave; for those businesses now staring into the abyss after having had a last gasp at pre-christmas sales snatched from them.
“The shockwaves of this are going to jolt through every part of Westminster. This is an absolute tragedy for everyone who had worked so hard to revitalise our
West End and fan the embers of recovery for our city.”
British Chambers of Commerce director general Adam Marshall said: “The introduction of an additional tier without warning or additional help is a huge blow to business people who wanted nothing more than to be able to trade safely through the holiday season.”
Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, said the hospitality sector had “lost all confidence” in the Government strategy for tackling Covid-19. He added: “The unrelenting closing and reopening of businesses is costing owners hundreds of thousands of pounds, and coupled with the erratic decision-making around restrictions, is rapidly destroying the ability of the sector to bounce back.”
People in Tier 4 areas reacted with fury at being told to “stay at home”. One said: “I see my family twice a year and I am devastated.
“I can’t explain how upsetting and disheartening this is.” Another added: “If you lock us all over Christmas – meaning families who have spent hundreds of pounds preparing to see loved ones – then you have proven what an utterly incompetent leader you and your cabinet are. Shame on you.”
While another tweeted said: “Already made plans and spent money to visit family, not gonna stay home alone for Christmas on 4 days notice.”
Which? consumer rights expert Adam French said people should be able to claim refunds on prebooked train tickets. He said: “If you’ve forked out on money for a
train ticket and have to stay put you should be able to cancel the trip and get your money back. Rail operators should be as accommodating as possible by allowing passengers the flexibility to use tickets or issuing them refunds if they can’t travel at another time.”
The effective “lockdown” for Tier 4 areas came after a disappointing final Saturday before
Christmas for retailers, with the expansion of Tier 3 restrictions across England blamed for a 2.6 per cent fall in footfall yesterday morning compared with seven days earlier.
The number of shoppers on the high street and in retail centres had been expected to rise as it traditionally does on the last Saturday before the festive period, but figures from analysts Springboard showed only retail parks enjoyed a 2.9 per cent rise.
Footfall on high streets fell by 4.3 per cent and at shopping centres by one per cent compared with Saturday morning last week. Central London saw the biggest slump, down by 39.4 per cent week on week, with regional cities down by 12.5 per cent.
Coastal towns enjoyed a 3.5 per cent rise, with market towns up 3.1 per cent, suggesting people shopped locally due to concerns about the rising infection rates for Covid-19.
Diane Wehrle, insights director for Springboard, said: “Up to noon, footfall in UK retail destinations was 2.6 per cent lower than on the previous Saturday.
“This is undoubtedly due to the introduction of Tier 3 restrictions across most of England, as we would have expected footfall to rise on what is the last trading Saturday before Christmas.”
Meanwhile, a train operator linking London and the south west will be stopping services short of the capital in the run-up to Christmas. South Western Railway said all West of England line services, which run between Waterloo and Exeter St David’s via Hampshire, will terminate at Basingstoke until Christmas Eve.
Services between Salisbury and Bristol have been cancelled with the operator saying crews either contracting coronavirus or self-isolating mean fewer trains are able to run.
‘You should be able to cancel’