The Prime Minister’s plan for ‘significant normality’

Normally Fridays are spent thinking about how to unwind from work. Today though Boris Johnson announced changes to government guidance to get the public back to work, and more specifically, their place of work. From 1 August, the guidance will be changed to give employers more discretion to decide whether their employees should keep working from home or head back to the office. Public transport guidance will be updated as well to encourage people to use it to travel to work – an overdue change, as the guidance has been at odds with other policies for weeks now, and only open for essential journeys despite pubs, restaurants and shops opening back up.

With the furlough scheme starting to wind down from next month, and many city centre businesses on their knees, it’s clear the government is updating its policy in the hopes that it will get more people in the office, protecting both their desk jobs and the service jobs around them.