The UK government recently announced a new 3 Tier system defining the severity of the pandemic and the resulting rules and regulation, on a regional basis.
This morning it was announced that London would shift to Tier 2 which disallows mixing between households. The capital city joins Manchester in Tier 2 and Liverpool which alone sits at Tier 3.
Whilst Tier 2 recommends that those who can work from home do so, the question about coworking and flex workspace availability for everyone else remains almost entirely unanswered.
We’re actively working with local partners, platforms and workspace operators to try and get more details on what this means for workspace providers and their members and will be updating this post and our twitter account as we learn more.
Updates as the come in:
During a call earlier with the Mayor of London’s Workspace Advisory Board, Capital Enterprise and colleagues from the London Coworking Assembly it was unanimous that guidance for workspaces hadn’t changed or been updated yet.
Added at 15 October at 2:00pm UK time
You can check your local Tier by entering your postcode into the official restrictions checker here or see an overview of the latest levels/tiers here.
Added at 15 October at 2:21pm UK time
BBC reports that Greater Manchester leaders have not reached an agreement to move into level three (or Tier 3) restrictive measures.
Added at 15 October at 3:14pm UK time
Regarding going to work, gov.uk advises the following for going to work in both High and Very High Tier territories: (bold added for emphasis)
Going to work
To help contain the virus, office workers who can work effectively from home should do so over the winter. Where an employer, in consultation with their employee, judges an employee can carry out their normal duties from home they should do so.
Public sector employees working in essential services, including education settings, should continue to go into work where necessary.
Anyone else who cannot work from home should go to their place of work.
The risk of transmission can be substantially reduced if COVID-secure guidelines are followed closely. Extra consideration should be given to those people at higher risk.
Those classed as clinically extremely vulnerable can go to work as long as the workplace is COVID secure, but should carry on working from home wherever possible.
There is no limit to the group size when you are meeting or gathering for work purposes, but workplaces should be set up to meet the COVID-secure guidelines.
For more information, follow the guidance on how to return to work safely.
Added at 15 October at 3:17pm UK time
Tushar from Hubble shared this insightful guide on how to manage your team (and yourself) through the new/updated lockdowns.
Added at 16 October at 2:36pm UK time
New national lockdowns implemented until at least mid-February 2021.
Added at 04 January at 10:04pm UK time
In the meantime, Status Sync is live, free and available to help automatically sync your workspaces’ lockdown status as it changes, across all integrated platforms or displayed your own website.
