You may consider the correct answer is - nothing! We are professional estate agents, valuers and surveyors and they are purveyors of luxury coffee (which occasionally we might drink). However, what we do now have in common between us, is that it has been recommended in a report to the government that estate agencies and cafes should be amongst the first businesses to re-open as soon as the lockdown is eased.
The independent report prepared by leading business figures, Conservative peer Lord Ghadia and GlaxoSmithKline’s chairman Sir Jonathan Symonds, recommends that the property industry is a key economic 'multiplier' and should be one of the first business sectors to resume trading as lockdown restrictions are eased. The report has been presented to ministers as they seek advice on how to revive the economy without compromising the nation’s health.
The report says that estate agents are one of a group of businesses who would have the widest potential impact as economic revival ‘multipliers’, but with minimal risk of spreading infection among the population further.
It would appear the government may be looking ahead to trying to prepare the UK for learning to live around COVID-19, taking into account that an effective vaccine could some 18 months away from being introduced.
Estate Agents, coffee shops and restaurants have also been highlighted in the report because they would stimulate the agriculture sector in the UK, as well as returning thousands of furloughed staff to full-time work.
The report says that “We need to avoid a stop-start economy which would sap public morale and damage business confidence yet further.”
The Robert Bell & Company Team
Source/Acknowledgement: The Negotiator 16/04/20.
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