CBI: New measures a blow to business

The Prime Minister said yesterday that tighter rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 could last six months and the advice was that by next spring “things will be vastly, vastly improved.” But the director-general of the CBI, Carolyn Fairbairn, said the six-month timetable “will come as a shock” to business, adding reversing plans to bring more employees back to offices was a “crushing blow for thousands of firms”. Elsewhere, UKHospitality CEO Kate Nicholls described the fresh restrictions as “another crushing blow” for many businesses while lobby group London First said advising people to work from home risked "derailing an already fragile recovery". Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, added that it was now vital that the Government “steps forward with an ambitious second round of support measures to help firms survive."