Business secretary confirms shops can reopen from 15 June
The business secretary says the country continues to meet the five tests for lifting lockdown figures, while the R rate of infection remains below one.
He says, this means he can confirm today that retail outlets that were forced to shut can now reopen from Monday 15 June, so long as they comply with COVID-19 secure guidelines.
He says this will enable high streets up and down the country to “spring back to life”.
But Mr Sharma says pubs, bars, restaurants and hairdressers will not be able to reopen until July 4 “at the earliest”.
“Of course, there are businesses which still remain closed, he says.
“As soon as we can we will publish further safer working guidance for restaurants, pubs and bars, as well as hairdressers, barbers, nail bars and related services.
“I know there’s been a lot of speculation about when we might be able to reopen these parts of the economy and I completely understand why we’re all so keen to get them back up and running, and I absolutely share that enthusiasm.
“But we continue to follow the road map which set out our ambition to reopen these sectors from July 4 at the earliest.”
