The government has outlined plans to ease England out of lockdown, setting out a roadmap for changes that could provide a huge boost to commercial property landlords.
Prime minister Boris Johnson set out four stages of unlocking in the House of Commons, which will be dependent on continued positive trends on deaths and hospitalisations, infection rates and vaccine roll-out data, as well as the absence of more problematic new variants.
Pubs and other hospitality premises may be among the properties that commercial property solicitors in Hull will be needed to deal with in much-increased volumes soon, as part of the plan envisages that outdoor hospitality could be opened from April 29th as part of the second phase of unlocking.
This stage would also be significant for retailers, as all shops would be allowed to open, as would gyms, spas, hairdressers’ and beauty salons.
Hotels and hostels will be reopening to household groups in the third phase, which is hoped to be introduced in may, while the fourth phase would end remaining social restrictions, meaning nightclubs, indoor hospitality and theatres being open again as life gets back to something very close to the ‘old’ normal.
All this may be good news both for those keen to sell up after a very difficult period, as well as those keen to buy and cash in on high demand for services and experiences that people have been unable to access during more than a year of restrictions.
Optimism about the progress in curbing the virus has been given a huge boost by the latest data on the vaccines, showing they are helping to slash infection and hospitalisation rates.
However, it is just as important for those trading in commercial property to have good reason to think the economic recovery will be a strong one, something that has been predicted by the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane.
Writing recently in the Daily Mail, he predicted that the bounce-back would be strong because those people who had no seen their income fall would have been able to save up money due to many things they would normally spend it on being unavailable.
He said they would be keen to spend it on everything they had been missing when they get the chance, from pub nights to theatre trips.