Alex Belsey

Opening Up The Lockdown And Bouncing Back From Covid-19

Slowly but surely, life in the UK is returning to some kind of normality. However, what form this normality takes, remains to be seen.

There has been much discussion in recent times of entering a 'new normal', where the restrictions on our daily lives and movements are lifted, but increased precautions need to be taken at every step of our daily routines.

Among the business community, there has generally been a widespread sense of relief that the economy is beginning to open up again, since many fixed costs still remain payable, while government assistance, such as the furlough scheme, is gradually being reduced.

Here in Torquay, on the first day when non-essential retailers were able to reopen, the queues for some of the shops were astounding; customers hoping to enter popular outlets such as Primark and Sports Direct were having to join queues of up to a hundred yards long, while trying their best to maintain proper social distancing.

No doubt the sight of all these keen shoppers lifted the spirits of our embattled business community, and offered their staff the opportunity to get back to work and contribute to the economy again, while earning their full salary again, as many of those furloughed will not have seen the scheme's 80% of salary payments be topped up by their cash-strapped employers.

The theme of 'bouncing-back' from the disruption caused by Covid-19 is one which has been the mind of both myself and many of my contacts recently.

In fact, the next issue of Quay Magazine (the publication I am Lead Editor of), which will be released in approximately one week's time, will likely be subtitled 'Bounce-Back Edition', as a large number of the 17 articles contained in the magazine are based on the topic of how to come back stronger and wiser as a result of everything we have had to endure over the course of this pandemic.

I am pleased to say that many of my clients are bouncing back well after a difficult few months, and traffic graphs like the one below are something I see quite commonly at the minute: