London footfall fear as top firms aim to bring back half of workers

Operators’ concerns about “deserted” London streets have taken a further setback after the City’s top 30 businesses told police they aim to bring a maximum of 40% of the workforce back.

It came as a survey of 1,251 senior managers conducted by Opus Energy and Haven Power showed 48% would continue to let staff work from home.

One of the businesses surveyed told the MailOnline: “We are slowly increasing people in the office and we are currently at around 15%. For the next few months we are not going to be over half-full, but the aim is to build to that.

“We have got to keep the two-metre distancing between members of staff's desks, which means the capacity of the offices are greatly reduced.”

Luke Johnson, chairman of Capital Risk Partners, said: “Places like London are deserted – shops, offices, stations are empty. The public are scared and public transport is dysfunctional. The government must stop Project Fear or our cities will suffer permanent damage.”

Former Galvin at Windows general manager Fred Sirieix said London was “depressingly empty” last week.