Insurance giant eyes May to inject City with staff again

LLOYD’S of London expects to have a few hundred people back in its underwriting room from mid-may as the vaccine rollout begins to inject some life back into the deserted Square Mile.

The world’s largest insurance market is among the first big City employers to lay out a plan to get workers meeting face to face again after Boris Johnson outlined his roadmap for reopening the economy on Monday.

Lloyd’s will reopen its underwriting room from May 17, allowing brokers and underwriters to negotiate in person for the first time this year. It is thought the market will allow 30pc of its usual capacity back from mid-may, meaning a maximum of 2,000 people in the building.

However, it only expects a few hundred to return initially while most still work remotely. A government review of social distancing measures, including the advice to work from home, is due in June. Lloyd’s will also open its corporation offices from April 12 to employees “who need to be in for their well-being” and on a limited rota basis for those who wish to come in from May 17.

“To manage capacity and ensure we are Covid-secure, we will once again apply a class of business rota during the week and we will confirm further details closer to the time,” a spokesman said. Pre-covid, its underwriting room could hold up to 7,000 a day.

The latest update will be welcomed by politicians and officials, who want to get city centres back to life when the lockdown ends. The Government’s plans were dealt a blow this week after a slew of big banks, including HSBC, Lloyds and Standard Chartered, announced plans to slash office space.

Lloyd’s added that it hopes to adopt hybrid working for staff from June 21, the roadmap’s date for potentially lifting all social contact limits. A spokesman said: “If all goes to plan, we will relax this further from June 21 when we will also begin to fully adopt flexible working.”