Cities turn to ghost towns

BRITAIN’S city centres were near ghost towns yesterday as thousands of workers returned to home working.

In London train stations – such as Waterloo, above – were deserted but freelance writer Sabrina Huck, 29, was still going in to the office. She said: “For a lot of us who live in shared housing, we’ll go if we can because our home working set- up isn’t ideal.”

In Manchester Ismail Kocak, owner of Fix2Fit tailors, admitted his fears. He said: “There’s not many people in the city centre. Half our business comes from the offices, courts, the banks.”

In Leeds rush- hour traffic was sparse. Among those staying at home was office worker Ashley Pemberton, 30. He said: “We came back into the office two weeks ago and it felt fantastic to be back among colleagues. But now we have all been told to work from home again.” Birmingham was “eerily quiet”. Carl O’Conner from the Habaneros Mexican Street Food van said: “It’s going to be very difficult.”