Features - Page 165

Those hoping to secure a wee dram in the centre of Aberdeen will find themselves sorely disappointed as the city was the first in Scotland to re-enter lockdown yesterday evening.

Communities secretary Robert Jenrick has said this week that schools will be safe to reopen in September and that getting children back into full-time education is an “absolute priority” for the government.

The shift toward home working which has come about out of necessity during the Covid-19 lockdown period has sparked major consultation between firms and employees over their respective needs and how working practices in the UK may alter in future. Any long-term shift toward remote working, however, is likely to have a significant impact on the commercial real estate side of the property sector.

With salons across the country reopened for just over a month, the transformative power of a good haircut has never been clearer. Though the process may differ slightly, the end result is the same, if not better – distance, social or otherwise, does make the heart grow fonder after all.

As businesses across the country respond to the current economic situation, the chairman of The Lane Group spoke with The Leaders Council about the importance of continuing to operate amid a pandemic. Meanwhile an investigation into the introduction of the UK-wide quarantine revealed some 10,000 infected individuals were able to enter the country prior to lockdown.

The children’s commissioner for England has said that schools should only close after pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops in the event of a future lockdown.

QHi Group Ltd, a Harpenden-based global specialist in thermal monitoring of electrical infrastructure, has been honoured with the receipt of a 2020 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.

London based online market research agency FlyResearch has been issuing weekly polls to its research panel of over 3000 people throughout the coronavirus lockdown in the UK, in order to project how the outbreak and the implementing of social distancing has been impacting the daily life of UK citizens. In continuation of his analyses previously reported by The Parliamentary Review, managing partner Greg Ward discusses the findings from the eighteenth wave of the Covid-19 tracker survey with the Leaders Council, published on July 30 and sourced from data collected on July 24.

Jeff Bezos makes $2,489 per second. In the time it would take to make a cup of tea, Bezos could put a down payment on a flat in South Kensington without breaking a sweat and still have money left over.

Scientists have warned that current test and trace measures are inadequate to prevent a second wave of coronavirus following the reopening of schools across the country.

As businesses across the country face up to the current economic situation, former managing director of Vetcel speaks to The Leaders Council about the benefits of a military background in leadership. Meanwhile the government has abandoned plans for tailored shielding for the over-50s.

As the government brings in temporary VAT cuts and the 'eat out to help out scheme’ to incentivise consumers to return to frequenting local business premises and spend money to get the UK economy on the road to recovery post-lockdown, Jillian Thomas, the managing director of Sheffield firm Future Life Wealth Management, has issued her own plea for people to play their part.

In part of its plans to avoid mass unemployment in the UK, the government has launched an initiative to provide 30,000 new traineeships to get young people in England working to help breathe new life into an economy recovering from the impact of Covid-19.

For the past 25 years, Rina Sawayama has resided in the UK. Yet, in spite of holding indefinite leave to remain, Sawayama is ineligible for the Mercury prize as she does not hold a British passport.