How much does the Covid crisis cost to the London coffers
Over two billion pounds. This is the impact of the coronavirus and related containment measures on London. The point of Daniele Meloni
Over two billion pounds. This is the impact of the coronavirus and the related containment measures on London, a British megalopolis and one of the cities defined as "Capitals of the world". The figure is based on an estimate by the Center for Economics and Business Research ( Cebr ), which investigated the effects of working from home, shopping spending and activities more related to the services sector in the British capital. If the Johnson government had launched a grand plan to get people back to their workplaces, returning from the summer holidays, the surge in Covid-19 cases in the last week – + 60% compared to last week – has re-proposed the problem of the economic crisis that affects, most of all, the large urban centers.
The Cebr analysis was based on mobility data from Google and shows how the number of people who moved during working hours to reach the City from April to today is 77% lower than in the pre-crisis period. Data from the iZettle payment app and the UK's Nationwide Building Society showed that monthly employee spending on the Square Mile was 500 million lower per month from March to June. Nina Skero, CEO of Cebr, said that "restaurants, barbers and other personal services have been the most affected by the lockdown that has confined the entire country to home".
Legal services firm, JMW Solicitors, has brought 40% of its staff back to offices to improve productivity, moving beyond zoom calls and instant messaging services, but now with the restoration of "Stay Home, Stay Safe" on the part of the Government the company will have to review its policies. Barclays announced on Tuesday that hundreds of people will resume working from home, while high-tech companies have maintained the same guidelines since the outbreak of the pandemic. Google and Facebook leave their employees to work from home until the end of the year. Twitter has even claimed that staff members can work from home forever if they so wish.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/quanto-costa-la-crisi-covid-alle-casse-di-londra/ on Fri, 25 Sep 2020 13:40:57 +0000.