London can’t afford a return to WFH

FOR thousands of businesses across the capital, surviving Covid-19 took deep wells of hard work, creative thinking and sheer bloody-mindedness. Twenty months on from the first lockdown, many may be a little more indebted or struggling for staff but they are still here. So the last thing they need now is another work-from-home order because the Government could not get the basics right.

As we report today, business leaders have demanded that ministers take action to avoid any further lockdowns, and the economic calamity they wreak. That means they must take sensible measures to cut the transmission of the virus.

The Standard has repeatedly called to make mask-wearing mandatory on public transport and to accelerate the booster vaccine programme, as well as jabs for 12- to 15-year-olds. We are encouraged by the belated focus the Government has brought to this and hope half term will drive further take-up among young people. The reality is, however, that ministers took their eye off the ball on vaccines.

Work-from-home orders would have a devastating and outsized impact on London’s economy, where commuters are already less likely to have returned to the office than the national average.

Despite the Government’s best efforts, the capital remains the engine of the UK economy and it is therefore crucial that our city remains open. The success of the original vaccine roll-out allowed ministers to treat July 19 as freedom day from all reasonable precautions, such as face coverings, in large part to placate its lockdown-sceptic Right wing.

Yet the truth is that it is those low-tech, low-cost interventions that prevent the economically disastrous ones. Because this pandemic is not yet over. And the greatest risk to our freedoms and prosperity is not a face mask or a vaccine passport, but another lockdown.