London businesses count cost as workers avoid office

Nestled between central London’s rows of office blocks, eateries once packed with customers grabbing lunch or a morning coffee are counting the cost as the coronavirus keeps workers at home. 

“The City is not going to go back to normal,” said Berat, manager at Turkish restaurant Haz close to St Paul’s Cathedral, which before COVID-19 was thronged with lunchtime crowds. 

“People saw they can work from home…. We can’t serve someone from home,” Berat told Agence France-Presse as he greeted a handful of customers.

He says that Haz has only 15% of its usual customers, although it expects the figure to rise to 30% next month as companies increasingly ask staff to return to the office, at least on a part-time basis.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative government are using the end of the summer holidays and reopening of schools to encourage Britons to return to the office.

While no longer ghostly as was the case when Britain was in lockdown for around 3 months from late March, the roads around central London remain largely free of commuters.

“It’s very calm,” lamented one sandwich seller opposite St Paul’s, losing out also from a lack of tourists.

At a neighboring office block, the manager estimates that only 40% of companies renting space have returned, though she too expects an increase in the coming months.

According to Transport for London, traffic on the capital’s underground railway network is 70% below its level before lockdown.

“This will continue to be a period of change, with new ways of working needed to respond to COVID-19,” concluded this week by Bank of England official Alex Brazier.

Urban exodus

Meanwhile, with a majority of office workers continuing to do their jobs remotely, recent data has shown a jump in the number of people seeking to move out of the capital and into less urban areas. 

Oil giant BP, which is slashing 10,000 jobs after the pandemic crushed energy demand and prices, is actively encouraging non-frontline staff to work from home, while it is reportedly planning to leave its historic London headquarters.

Barclays bank says that only a small number of its 80,000 staff worldwide have returned to office working.

“Any return will be phased and gradual and it goes without saying that the health and safety of our colleagues, customers, and clients is a priority in this regard,” said a spokeswoman. 

The picture is similar at Lloyds bank, where 50,000 of its 60,000 staff are working remotely, while HSBC says its office occupancy is down to just one-fifth.

Natwest bank is telling staff to work from home until next year, while Google’s London staff can until at least July 2021.

“With many office blocks still empty and much of the public avoiding public transport, footfall is not returning to towns and city centers and this is having a devastating effect on the local economies in these areas,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium.

British coffee and sandwich chain Pret a Manger said it was cutting 2,800 jobs as a result of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Rival Costa Coffee on Thursday, September 3, announced 1,650 job losses. – Rappler.com