Following announcements by the Prime Minister last night, and revised guidance released this morning, the below are latest restriction and business updates for England and Wales.
ENGLAND
The new local restrictions for England and changes can be viewed at – Full list of local restriction tiers by area – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
In the new Tier 4 for England the guidance states:
Businesses and venues which must close
To reduce social contact, the regulations require some businesses to close and impose restrictions on how some businesses provide goods and services. These include:
· non-essential retail, such as clothing and homeware stores, vehicle showrooms (other than for rental), betting shops, tailors, tobacco and vape shops, electronic goods and mobile phone shops, and market stalls selling non-essential goods – these venues can continue to be able to operate click-and-collect (where goods are pre-ordered and collected off the premises) and delivery services
· hospitality venues such as cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars and social clubs; with the exception of providing food and drink for takeaway (until 11pm), click-and-collect, drive-through or delivery.”
Businesses and venues which can remain open
Other businesses and venues are permitted to stay open, following COVID-19 Secure guidelines. This includes those providing essential goods and services, including:
· essential retail such as food shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, garden centres and Christmas tree retailers, building merchants and suppliers of building products and off-licences
· market stalls selling essential retail may also stay open
· businesses providing repair services may also stay open, where they primarily offer repair services”
Full details for England can be viewed Tier 4: Stay at Home – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
WALES
In Wales the situation is different. The statement from the First Minister issued Saturday evening can be viewed at Written Statement: Alert level four restrictions (19 December 2020) | GOV.WALES The First Minister confirmed that “This will mean non-essential retail, close contact services, gyms and leisure centres, hospitality and accommodation will close at the end of trading today (Saturday)”.
SUMMARY
NABMA, unless notified further, considers that essential and non essential goods remain as the guidance that NABMA and NMTF jointly issued at the point of Lockdown 2 – that gained a government concession in terms of repairs to mobile phones. NABMA will continue to provide updates on any changes that may impact on markets during the coming week, and over the Christmas period.