Retailers to reopen today after three months in lockdown

Businesses classed as selling non-essential goods, including fashion operators, department stores, sports and leisure retailers and book stores, will be able to welcome customers to their stores once again as lockdown measures ease.

Primark is among the retailers looking to make up for lost time, reopening all 153 of its stores across England today.

Other high street names like John Lewis are taking a more phased approach to reopenings.

The department store chain is reopening two of its stores today, in Kingston and Poole, with nine more to follow later this week.

Both businesses are among the larger operators to have drafted in extra security to make sure shoppers stay two metres apart from each other.

Local councils and businesses will also deploy armies of “social distancing wardens” on high streets to ensure shopper safety in anticipation of long queues at certain stores.

More than 1,000 people queued outside Ikea’s store in Croydon when it reopened two weeks ago.

Birmingham City Council, for instance, has told businesses it will take action against those that do not comply with social distancing rules. It has hired Kier to police the city’s shops.

Kier highway network director Eddie Fellows told The Guardian: “Our highway stewards are there to help traders who wish to comply, but they will ask the council to take enforcement action if they fail to. We do not want to take possession of traders’ property, but are ready to do so in the interests of public safety.”

Local authorities in Cambridge and Oxford have hired similar teams of stewards, while the latter has also spent almost £250,000 to create new one-way systems on its pavements.

The moves come after the government warned it will fine shop owners up to £1,000 if they have not carried out adequate risk assessments.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak also revealed over the weekend that the government will take a “fresh look” at its two-metre social distancing guidelines.

The World Health Organisation has stipulated that people must stay “at least” one metre apart and the government has faced increasing calls to cut the two-metre distance currently in place.

In an interview with Sky News, Sunak insisted there would be a “comprehensive review” of the policy.

Meanwhile, retailers are currently mulling whether or not to return furlough cash to the government as store staff return to work.

Ikea is already in discussions with governments about handing back some of the money after it started reopening its UK stores earlier this month.

John Lewis put 14,000 staff on furlough in April, but the business is now debating whether or not to claim for the full amount as some of those workers return to work this week.