Category: Business News

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These are tense times for Huawei and the UK’s telecoms providers.

The prime minister will shortly review use of the Chinese company’s equipment, with MPs set to be informed of his decision on Tuesday.

It seems likely that Boris Johnson will set a deadline by which time the firm should stop being involved in the country’s 5G network. But what’s unclear is whether he’ll also order it to be stripped out of other mobile and fixed-line broadband systems too.

The decision will not only have an impact on the rollout of high-speed data services but could also encourage other countries to rethink their own relationships with Huawei.

What are the options?

In January, the government ordered that Huawei’s market share of 5G and fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband be capped at 35%, and that it also be removed from the most sensitive part of mobile networks, known as the core.

Since then ministers have said that “over time” they want high-risk vendors – including Huawei – to be excluded outright, but have not said by when.

Some of the UK’s mobile networks have already spent large sums installing Huawei masts and other equipment to connect smartphones to their 5G networks.

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Huawei

They have said they want about seven years to replace it with another option if they must, and at a push could do it in five.

But some Tory MPs say the deed must be done before 2024’s general election.

The networks claim this would be difficult, not least because today’s 5G base stations are often upgrades of existing 4G kit. So the swap to another supplier is a bigger job than it might seem as it involves replacing much of their 4G infrastructure too.

In regard to broadband, BT’s Openreach division will bear the brunt of any decision.

It currently aims to meet the cap by using two other vendors to build new FTTP capacity rather than by replacing any existing Huawei equipment, which would involve extra cost and effort.

And then there’s the nuclear option.

If Mr Johnson wants Huawei out of the telecoms network altogether, then 70,000 roadside cabinets used to provide existing broadband connections would also need to be refitted.

At that point, the sums and work involved start to become colossal.

Why is this happening?

Geopolitical tension between the US and China is the reason behind the review into the use of Huawei’s technology.

Washington claims Huawei poses a national security risk and has unfairly benefited from government support. Whether these claims are true – and Huawei denies them – the Trump administration clearly sees the company as a totem for the spread of Chinese influence, and is trying to push back.

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Its latest move is sanctions designed to prevent the firm from being able to get its own chips manufactured.

Neither Huawei nor the third-party fabricators it relies on would be allowed to use American electronic design automation (EDA) software – which is used to design, simulate and produce the firm’s processors – or any other tool based on American intellectual property,

At present there is no quick way to get round this, leading one of the world’s biggest chip producers – TSMC – to stop taking new orders from the Chinese company.

With enough time, Huawei might convince manufacturers to run “de-Americanised” production lines.

But in some cases there are no easy substitutes. In particular, it would lose the ability to make chips as densely packed with transistors as is currently the case, meaning they would not work as efficiently.

As a result, Huawei may have to let others design and make the chips at the heart of its products.

However, UK security chiefs are concerned that this would prevent them being able to vet it equipment as thoroughly.

And it is believed GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre has told politicians the balance of risk has shifted as a consequence.

One option that had been considered was for the government to advise – but not order – networks to stop using Huawei’s kit.

But dozens of Tory MPs have made clear they would rebel unless a tougher line is taken.

Bob Seely – a member of the Huawei Interest Group of Conservative MPs – told the BBC he believes the government will announce that no new 5G Huawei kit can be installed after 2021, and all such equipment must be removed by the end of 2025.

“Not everyone would be satisfied by that,” he said, but added that it would be enough to prevent the government losing a parliamentary vote.

What can Huawei do?

For now, the firm seems to be hoping it can sway the prime minister’s mind at the eleventh hour.

Huawei can make the case that it has built up stockpiles of its chips and the sanctions allow foundries outside the US to continue making more until mid-September.

Moreover, it could promise to set aside some of that supply specifically to fulfil UK orders, and thus guarantee that it would not need to ship kit using third-party components to the country for at least two or three years – by which point the US sanctions might be over.

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That might satisfy immediate security concerns, but the decision is also a political one.

Huawei hopes any new restrictions are accompanied by a pledge to carry out a follow-up review, leaving the door open to a further U-turn.

But in the light of tensions with China over its treatment of Hong Kong, Boris Johnson might not be in any mind to offer such a concession.

Huawei could still try to mount a legal challenge.

When asked about this possibility, its UK chief Victor Zhang said now was “not the right time to make the case” .

What would be the consequences for the UK?

Ericsson already supplies many of the UK networks with 5G kit and has said it can take on extra demand at a competitive price.

“Commercially, will it cost more? I can guarantee you no,” the firm’s European chief Arun Bansal told the BBC.

Nokia is another existing supplier that could pick up the slack. And – in time – there’s also talk of bringing Samsung and NEC on board too.

But Vodafone has warned that unless operators are given at least seven years to pull Huawei out, then the further rollout of 5G will be slower than planned.

Likewise, Openreach believes it would struggle to meet the prime minister’s 2025 target of “gigabit broadband for all” if it has to replace existing Huawei broadband gear.

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There would also be wider ramifications.

Huawei would presumably rethink promises it has made to invest in R&D in the country, including plans for a £1bn development near Cambridge.

Furthermore, China’s ambassador to the UK has said it would damage Britain’s reputation for being a business-friendly, open nation.

“When you get rid of Huawei, it sends it a very wrong message. You punish your image as a country that can conduct independent policy,” said Liu Xiaoming.

On the flipside, a ban might encourage the Trump administration to give the UK a free trade deal that would aid its post-Brexit fortunes.

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When Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his £2bn “Kickstart” jobs scheme this week, for some it sounded strangely familiar.

Those of a certain age may remember the Future Jobs Fund – the scheme set up by then-Labour Prime Minster Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alastair Darling in 2009 in reaction to the global financial crash. Like the current Conservative chancellor’s programme, it also provided big incentives to employers to take on young people. Businesses were paid up to £6,500 for each job they created, for jobs that lasted at least six months.

So how successful was the 2009 scheme? We spoke to two people who were on the scheme and one person who helped implement it.

Lisa Connell, 29: ‘You might not get a full-time job from it’

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Lisa Connell

Lisa Connell is a student nurse in Uxbridge. She was on the Future Jobs Fund scheme in 2010. She was finishing college in 2009 and it took her some time to get on the scheme.

“When I applied for the scheme I was unemployed,” she says. “The job that I got through the scheme was working in administration for a local estate tenant management service in Islington, London. They needed to fill a vacancy.”

Lisa hadn’t passed all of her A/S Levels and was living with her mum at the time, and had to go out to work.

“It was purely a six-month opportunity,” she recalls. “But I didn’t get taken on at the end of it – it was a very small office and it was clear that government money was funding my position of 25 hours a week. I will always be grateful for it as it was my first job but once it finished, it was back to a long period of unemployment.”

Lisa says it is important for those who embark on the new scheme to be aware that it won’t necessarily mean a full-time job at the end of it. After her work placement ended, she didn’t have a permanent job for four years, but she believes the Future Jobs Fund was an important addition to her CV.

“I finally got an apprenticeship in 2014 and the scheme I did in 2010 certainly helped me when it came to landing that,” she says. “But it didn’t inform my career – I’m now a student nurse.”

She sees similarities between the 2009 and 2020 schemes. “They are offering 25 hours, training, the government will pay for it – why not just say they are bringing the old scheme back? It will be interesting to see what happens with it. It could take young people out of unemployment for six months – but then what?”

Lewis English, 33: ‘There needs to be support and understanding from employers’

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Lewis English

Back in 2010, Lewis English worked for a firm called Work Solutions, which implemented the Future Jobs Fund for Manchester City Council. He was in charge of the section looking after those working in refuse, cleansing, waste management and roadworks.

“The firm dealt with about 1,000 FJF employees, and I was responsible for around 70 of them,” he recalls. He interviewed candidates, supported them when in place and checked their work.

“A lot of them had been on what was then Jobseeker’s Allowance for a long time, and the whole point of taking them on was to give them work experience. A lot of people had issues with the return to work, particularly as their hours were 7am starts. But they did good work.”

However, he estimates only 60% to 70% completed their placement. Of those who finished the six-month work experience, he says many were very disappointed at not being kept on for a full-time job.

Lewis, who today runs a marketing company called Underpin, in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, says he intends to use the new government Kickstarter scheme to take on two people. His aim is to provide full-time employment should the placements go well.

Of the new scheme, he says: “There needs to be support and understanding from employers that many on the programme may have been unemployed for a long time. Also, there needs to be recognition that English and maths skills are so important in the modern workplace.

“And there needs to be an awareness that schemes like this are potentially open to exploitation – some will see this programme solely as a source of cheap labour, and so it needs to be very closely monitored.”

Ryan Chambers, 32: ‘It may help you in the long term’

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Ryan Chambers

Ryan Chambers was on the Future Jobs Fund scheme back in 2010.

“I dropped out of university and I was struggling to get back into work,” he says. “When I was on the scheme, I ended up in an office where I’d be sat with other people who had been out of work for 10 years. We would be taught how to open emails and suchlike.

“I would keep applying for anything and everything just to get out of that situation. I eventually got a job in an outbound sales call centre – it lasted for about six weeks.”

He kept looking for other roles and eventually got one in a customer service centre where he spent eight years.

“I didn’t have the best experience on the [FJF] scheme but it did help me get a job in the long run,” says Ryan, who is based in Leeds and now works for an internet service provider. He says of Rishi Sunak’s “Kickstart” programme: “I’ve gone through his statement and it does sound extremely similar to the scheme I was on.

“I thought though the scheme I was on was cancelled by David Cameron as it wasn’t economically viable – so how economically viable is this new one really going to be?”

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EasyJet has been accused of intending to use pilots’ sickness records when drawing up plans for over 700 job cuts.

The Balpa pilots’ union said it was “unnecessary and wrong”, claiming the airline was risking safety because unwell staff would report for work.

EasyJet said general absenteeism could form part of its assessment, but denied sickness might be a key component.

The airline said it had put forward initial proposals for talks with Balpa which were at a very early stage.

EasyJet is planning 727 pilot redundancies as part of up to 4,500 job cuts and a restructuring that includes closing bases at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle airports.

The airline has blamed the collapse in air travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ahead of the start of formal talks, Balpa said the airline has told pilot representatives it will use sickness as a component in choosing who loses their job.

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Brian Strutton, Balpa’s general secretary, called it outrageous. “Flight safety is built on a culture of openness and not fear of repercussions. This is a well understood and fundamental tenet for everyone involved in ensuring our skies are safe.

“It is unnecessary and wrong that easyJet is intending to use sickness as a stick to beat its safety-critical staff. EasyJet has in the past rightly encouraged pilots to report in sick or fatigued if they are unfit to fly – that is in everyone’s best interest.”

Attendance and conduct

He said EasyJet was planning to use the start of the coronavirus period as part of its sickness timeframe, when staff may have been sick or shielding themselves.

But the airline rejected Balpa’s claims: “We would never put forward proposals which would compromise safety as we have an industry-leading safety culture, as Balpa acknowledges.

“Safety is our number one priority and we are focused on doing what is right for the long term health of the company and our people so we can protect jobs going forward,” the airline said in a statement.

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The airline said it is still setting out formal proposals for talks with Balpa, and while sickness might be one of the criteria, the focus would be on attendance and conduct.

“It is not true to say that sickness is a key component of the proposals. We have put forward a full range of criteria, including absence, for discussion with the union,” the airline.

EasyJet added that any general absentee assessment would be based on data from before coronavirus hit.

The airline said: “We are focused on doing what is right for the long term health of the company and our people so we can protect jobs going forward.”

Meanwhile, EasyJet said it had begun re-building its summer schedule and would be flying to and from all its UK bases across July and August, but at reduced capacity.

The airline said it planned to fly 50% of its 1,022 routes in July and 75% in August.

“We continue to monitor the flight volumes every two weeks and adjust capacity accordingly to latest booking trends,” the EasyJet said.

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One of Boohoo’s largest shareholders is dumping stock in the fashion firm after it said the company had failed to address concerns about working conditions at a supplier in Leicester.

Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) criticised Boohoo’s response to exploitation claims as “inadequate in scope, timeliness and gravity”.

Allegations of poor pay and conditions at a factory emerged last weekend.

Boohoo has since announced an independent review of its supply chain.

The fast fashion retailer’s share price fell 2% to 279.7p each.

A Sunday Times report claimed workers at a factory in Leicester – currently in local lockdown following a spike in Covid-19 cases – were paid just £3.50 an hour, while being offered no protection from coronavirus. It was making clothes for Boohoo’s Nasty Gal brand.

Lesley Duncan, deputy head of UK equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments, SLA’s fund management arm, said it had invested in Boohoo since its flotation in 2014.

• Boohoo dropped by Next, Asos and Zalando over exploitation claims
• Boohoo to investigate Leicester supplier over exploitation claims

SLA holds a 3.3% stake in Boohoo, according to data provider Morningstar.

Ms Duncan said it had lobbied the company over a number of years on issues such as supply chain transparency.

“While we would have liked progress to have been quicker we did feel that progress was being made,” Ms Duncan said.

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But she said that concerns had been growing in recent weeks “which even before recent developments, had negatively impacted our conviction levels in the company”.

“Having spoken to Boohoo’s management team a number of times this week in light of recent concerning allegations, we view their response as inadequate in scope, timeliness and gravity.”

The company, which also owns the PrettyLittleThing brand, said it was “appalled” by the allegations and that it had asked a senior barrister to lead a review.

However, other retailers have distanced themselves from Boohoo.

Next, Asos and Zalando all announced on Tuesday that they had Next, Asos and Zalando all announced they had stopped selling Boohoo clothes on their websites.

The retailers said they were pausing relationships with Boohoo’s brands, pending the outcome of the company’s investigation.

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Royal Mail has been fined £1.5m by the regulator for being late with first class deliveries and overcharging customers for second class stamps.

Ofcom said Royal Mail missed its target of delivering 93% of first class post within a day of collection.

It also overcharged people £60,000 after raising the cost of a second class stamp before a price cap was officially lifted.

Royal Mail admitted it was “disappointed” with its performance.

In the 2019 financial year, Ofcom found that only 91.5% of first class post was on time.

“Royal Mail let its customers down, and these fines should serve as a reminder that we’ll take action when companies fall short,” said Gaucho Rasmussen, Ofcom’s director of investigations and enforcement.

The watchdog also found that the company increased its price for second class stamps by 1p to 61p seven days ahead of the official cap being lifted.

Royal Mail estimates it overcharged people by £60,000 “which it is unable to refund”.

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Royal Mail admitted it had made a mistake and donated the sum to the charity Action for Children.

“We worked with Ofcom throughout this investigation and lessons have been learned by us during this process,” it said.

Earlier this year, Royal Mail lifted the price of a first class stamp which now costs 11p more than second class postage.

The price of a first class stamp for regular letters rose 6p to 76p and second-class went up by 4p to 65p.

The 65p second-class stamp is the maximum under an Ofcom price cap.

Commenting in the current financial year, Royal Mail said it would be on course to hit the 93% first class delivery target if it hadn’t been for the coronavirus outbreak.

“Despite our best endeavours, some areas of the UK experienced a reduction in service levels during March,” it said.

“Relevant factors included high levels of coronavirus-related absences and necessary social distancing measures.”

Last month Royal Mail said it will cut 2,000 management jobs as it struggles to deal with the effects of the coronavirus crisis.

The cuts, equal to around a fifth of the company’s management roles, aim to save about £130m in costs from next year.

Royal Mail said the pandemic accelerated the trend of more parcels and fewer letters being sent, and it had not adapted quickly enough to that.

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One of the UK’s biggest gym companies has said it lost about a fifth of its members during lockdown, despite halting membership payments.

The Gym Group said it had lost 178,000 customers over the past three months.

The company set out its plans to reopen nearly all of its gyms in England on 25 July, when restrictions on the sector are lifted.

Separately, Restaurant Group, the owner of Wagamama, said one in 10 of its outlets would not open until next year.

The company, which also owns Frankie & Benny’s, said sites where low custom was anticipated, such as airports, would stay closed.

Meanwhile, footfall on UK High Streets fell by 63% in June, compared to the same month last year, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and market research firm ShopperTrak, as retailers reopened.

On Thursday, two of the UK’s biggest High Street names, John Lewis and Boots, announced 5,300 job cuts.

‘Long road ahead’

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson told the BBC’s Today programme: “The real key now is seeing whether or not the lifting of restrictions around hospitality will take those numbers up further.

“But there is a long road ahead to get anything like a normal volume of people and, hence a normal volume of sales for those businesses that rely on people coming in.”

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Last month, Restaurant Group announced that 120 Frankie & Benny’s sites would close permanently, putting 3,000 jobs at risk.

On Friday, it said it was aiming to have 25% of its eateries open by the end of July, 60% by the end of August, and 90% by the end of September.

‘Encouraging response’

The Gym Group said it would open 160 sites in England on 25 July. Two gyms in locked-down Leicester and one being refurbished in London will stay closed for now.

It added that its 13 sites in Scotland and three in Wales would reopen “as soon as possible after relevant local restrictions are lifted”.

“We are in the process of un-furloughing our colleagues, who will be ready to open the doors of our gyms in England on July 25 and in the other home nations once restrictions are lifted,” said chief executive Richard Darwin.

“We are encouraged by the response of our members, the vast majority of whom are keen to get back to the gym to begin working out again.”

For Gym Group’s 692,000 remaining members, direct debit payments are due to restart, although they can request that they are frozen for longer.

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TikTok

Short-video app TikTok has halted operations in Hong Kong, according to a notice posted on its website.

The company flagged the move earlier this week after China imposed a new security law on the city.

The law has restricted freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory, raising concerns of official oversight of social media.

Other social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter are also reviewing operations in Hong Kong.

TikTok has come under scrutiny from the US and other countries because of concerns it could share user data with Chinese authorities.

The app was launched outside of mainland China by Beijing-based ByteDance to reach a global audience.

Separately, a spokesman for the app, said on Friday that TikTok might come under a new business structure.

“As we consider the best path forward, ByteDance is evaluating changes to the corporate structure of its TikTok business,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement.

He also reiterated previous pledges that ByteDance would refuse to share TikTok user data with Chinese authorities.

“We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.”

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TikTok has increased its popularity during global coronavirus lockdowns with about 315 million people downloading the app in the first three months of this year, according to research firm Sensor Tower.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and an Australian member of parliament have recently suggested the app needs more scrutiny over its data and privacy policies because its headquarters are in China.

Mr Pompeo has banned state department employees from downloading the app and suggested the app could also be banned in the US.

However, the company denied that it represented a security risk.

“TikTok is led by an American CEO (former Disney executive Kevin Mayer based in Los Angeles), with hundreds of employees and key leaders across safety, security, product, and public policy here in the US. We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our users,” a spokesman said.

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DaVinci Wedding Cinema

“We’ve always pictured having the big fat Indian wedding,” say Vishal Panesar and his fiancée Ravika Sabh, almost in unison.

Like thousands of couples, Londoners Vishal, 25, and Ravika, 24, had to postpone their wedding and reception after the coronavirus pandemic struck.

It was meant to be a lavish affair with three separate events and 400 guests.

But current measures imposed on weddings and gatherings mean the prospects of a big blowout are slim.

The UK wedding industry as a whole has been hit hard by the pandemic, with weddings banned under almost all circumstances since lockdown began.

That ban was lifted on 4 July in England, where small weddings with up to 30 guests are now allowed, with other restrictions. There are other rules for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Vishal and Ravika have cut down their guest list but are still keen to see whether a wedding with more than 30 guests is possible.

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DaVinci Wedding Cinema

“Restrictions are being eased up now, and people might say you can’t have a wedding with 400 guests, but you can have 200. That plays a big part in moving and postponing [our wedding].”

So as well as moving their May 2020 wedding to October, they have also pencilled in a date in June 2021 at the same venue, in the hope that by one of those dates they can have 200 or more guests.

Big spenders

It is estimated the wedding industry in the UK is worth around £10bn, with average spending on a wedding about £27,000.

But British Asian weddings, traditionally larger family affairs, with multiple events, tend to cost more.

Anisha Vasani from Bridelux, a specialist brand for the luxury wedding industry, estimates that British Asian weddings could account for nearly half of the UK wedding industry.

“The average Asian couple spend between £50,000-£100,000 on their wedding, depending on how many functions they hold for their celebrations, with costs only expected to grow.”

Many businesses specialising in supplying the Asian wedding market have suffered during the pandemic.

Seema Sarfraz runs Seema Sarees in East London. Her family business has been there since 1985 and bridal outfits are the mainstay of her sales.

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“The time that we went into lockdown was one of our biggest periods for bridal orders. In a normal year we would take 400-500 bridal orders, we’re talking about £500,000 worth of sales.”

With her shop closed during lockdown and her staff furloughed, Seema had more time to focus on social media.

She already had a sizeable Instagram following, which had previously brought in sales, but like others, she discovered the power of TikTok and started uploading fashion shoots of models in bridal outfits to Bollywood and hip hop tracks.

It wasn’t long before an unassuming bridal shoot went viral. “I woke up in the morning, and I’m like, ‘Nine million views, 250,000 followers?’ And from then on it’s just built and built.”

She now has more than a million followers on TikTok. It has resulted in some sales for Seema too, notably from the US and Canada, but she’s keen to welcome customers back into her store, albeit while social distancing and wearing face coverings.

Suppliers hit

Other wedding businesses – those that help make events happen – have also had to stop and take stock of where their livelihoods will come from.

Deep Bajwa runs Opulence Events, a luxury wedding and event planning company. “Last year I had 37 weddings, and this year we managed to get one in before lockdown.

“We deal with larger numbers for the weddings we work on, so for us I can’t see it happening [this year].”

Many of Deep’s clients are couples and families who spend upwards of £100,000 on their weddings – that includes venues, catering, clothes, entertainment and jewellery.

“We like it big! We like to have an amazing show. It’s big money that’s spent on Asian weddings.”

• How Covid-19 has changed the ‘big fat Indian wedding’
• ‘Lockdown has bonded us – now we’re getting married’

Deep says the lockdown has had huge implications for other suppliers she works with.

“We’ve had to postpone everyone’s payments until next year. Most people’s terms are two to four weeks for the final payment before the event, now if the event itself has moved, the final payments have gone with them.”

‘So much we don’t know’

She, and others in the industry, are unsure of how Asian weddings of this scale will happen in future.

Deep mentions caterers having to rethink how they would serve buffets, and trying to figure out how to have a dance floor where you can socially distance yourself from others.

“There’s still so much we don’t know but we’re keeping an eye on all the information, and trying to keep our clients happy and informed.”

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1SWEvents

How will Asian wedding businesses deal with the likelihood of smaller, scaled back weddings in the immediate future?

Timmy Kader is the co-founder of 1SWEvents, an event planning and decorating company that counts boxer Amir Khan as one of its clients.

She and her team are used to decorating plush venues that can hold hundreds of guests. “We haven’t got any weddings until the end of this year, which are still hanging on the edge because we don’t know if there will be a second wave [of coronavirus].”

Nevertheless, she is hopeful for the future.

“People still want an Instagramable wedding and you can have that wedding in your home, providing you get a décor expert in to advise you and still make it look really pretty.”

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Vanita Parti

Gyms, nail bars and various other businesses in England were disappointed last month when the government failed to give them the go-ahead to open at the same time as pubs and hairdressers.

Now the government has given them new guidance – but it’s not as straightforward as it initially seemed.

Beauty salons, tattooists and tanning salons can reopen from Monday 13 July.

Gyms, indoor swimming pools and leisure centres will have to wait until Saturday 25 July.

But in the wake of the government’s announcement, it has emerged that not all forms of beauty treatment have been approved.

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Vanita Parti is founder and chief executive of the Blink Brow Bar walk-in beauty bar chain, which has 11 shops in London.

At first, she welcomed the announcement as “fantastic news”, but then she got an email from the British Beauty Council telling her that no treatments on the face will be permitted.

This includes eyebrow treatments, one of her company’s specialities.

“I’m furious,” she told the BBC. “We can’t reopen… This will kill so many businesses. I wish they’d consulted us.”

Which beauty treatments are still not OK?

• Face waxing, sugaring or threading services
• Facial treatments
• Advanced facial technical (electrical or mechanical)
• Eyelash treatments
• Make-up application
• Dermarolling
• Dermaplaning
• Microblading
• Electrolysis on the face
• Eyebrow treatments
• Intricate detailing, outlining or shaving of beards
• Advanced beauty therapy and aesthetic treatments

Source: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Ms Parti was already feeling the loss of business from not being able to reopen earlier in the month.

“We had to cancel 2,000 appointments in the first week of July, That’s £3,000 that we had to write off,” she said.

“A lot of people have escaped on holiday and they were looking forward to getting a beauty treatment before they travelled, which they didn’t get.”

Suntan saviours?

The UK’s biggest tanning business, the Feel Good Group, with more than 90 tanning salons and more than 400 staff, is allowed to reopen next Monday, but questions why it took so long.

Adam Mooney, group’s founder and chief executive, said: “While we welcome the decision to finally allow us to reopen, the government could have allowed us to open last week, when hairdressers reopened.

“We are ready to reopen today, not next week.”

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Mr Mooney added: “More than 90% of our staff are women, and most in the 18 to 25-year-old age group, which is the demographic which has been worst hit financially by the pandemic, and they are very keen to get back to work.”

However, he anticipated keen demand, given the recent “dismal” weather in the UK and the difficulties in travelling abroad.

“Perhaps our tanning salons will be the suntan saviour of staycationing Brits this summer,” he said.

‘Welcome relief’

Indoor gyms and swimming pools will have to wait a little longer before they can reopen, although outdoor facilities can reopen from this Saturday.

Huw Edwards, chief executive of health body UK Active, told the BBC that the government’s announcement brought “welcome relief” for his members.

He said many gym owners and staff had felt “understandable frustration” not to have been included in the first wave of lockdown easing, but added: “We are where we are.”

Mr Edwards said the reopening of gyms was “an important moment for the health of the nation”.

“This is a health crisis, so we now look forward to playing our central role – using our facilities and staff to help combat Covid-19 by strengthening the physical and mental health of people in every community.”

However, he said that like the hospitality industry, the fitness industry would be looking for “urgent financial and regulatory support from the government to ensure that reopening is financially viable, both for private and public operators”.

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ROB WARD

Rob Ward, who runs YourGym, an independent fitness centre in Lytham, Lancashire, says he is ready to welcome people back to work out from 25 July, but they will find there are some changes.

“They’ll be noticing lots more sanitising stations around,” he says, while equipment has been moved to comply with social distancing rules.

“We’ve got our own app and they’ll have to book their space to avoid congestion at busy times.”

The only trouble is that he’s not quite sure yet what time of day that peak demand is likely to be.

“We think there will be a new normal. The busy times then may not be the busy times now,” he says. “People still on furlough may be more flexible with their time.”

Mr Ward’s staff are returning from furlough, so they will have to get used to that “new normal” as well.

“Everyone’s on a learning curve when they get back,” he told the BBC.

“The journey will be a little different, there will be time between classes, so it’s not exactly as it used to be, but we will adapt.”