Business Groups Call for Timeline to Lift Restrictions

Business Groups Call for Timeline to Lift Restrictions

Retail NI, Hospitality Ulster and Belfast Chamber of Commerce have urged the NI Executive to produce a timeline to lift existing Covid-19 restrictions and to not consider a fourth lockdown.

The Chief Executives of Retail NI, Hospitality Ulster and Belfast Chamber of Commerce, Glyn Roberts, Colin Neill, and Simon Hamilton said:

 “The local business community are looking with desperation at the rest of the UK and this island as their restrictions are being phased out. The Executive needs to produce a realistic timeline of safely lifting the remaining restrictions to give our members certainty and stability on the way ahead”

“We have heard a lot of unhelpful speculation about a fourth lockdown which has caused our members and their staff undue concern and anxiety. With Furlough ending and no further money from the Treasury for support grants, just how does the Executive propose to fund this?

“We also have a perfect storm coming our way with a forthcoming National Insurance hike and huge increases in energy prices which further add to the considerable burden of many business owners in Northern Ireland”

“The Executive needs to start giving more light and less tunnel in their message to business and the wider community”

“Those people remaining people who have not received the vaccination need to do so, for their own health, for their families and for their own community”