Prime minister set to announce 10pm curfew for bars and restaurants

In a fresh blow to the struggling high street, prime minister Boris Johnson is reportedly set to announce fresh, UK-wide restrictions and curfews for hospitality businesses from later this week. Such businesses will also be told to only offer table service to limit interactions. 

Johnson is also set to encourage those who can work from home to continue working from home, according to the BBC. 

That will come as a fresh blow to city centre and travel hub retailers as well as food-to-go specialists such as Pret a Manger and Costa Coffee, and comes less than a month after the government began encouraging people back into offices. 

The announcements were first trailed last night by the Financial Times and come the day after the government’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance gave a sombre update on the state of the pandemic in the UK. 

The UK’s so-called Covid alert level moved from three to four, meaning transmission is “high or rising exponentially”.

Last Monday, the government introduced its so called ‘rule of six’ – limiting social contacts to no more than six people, which health secretary Matt Hancock hinted may well last beyond Christmas. 

In the first week of the new guidance, Springboard found that footfall across UK retail destinations actually increased 2.4% week on week. 

However, footfall was still at historically low levels, with central London in particular suffering, with the figures 56.1% lower year on year.