More pedestrianisation touted for central London after Covid – transportxtra.com

06 April 2021
A permanent shift to home working sparked by Covid-19,  will put tens of thousands of jobs in central London at risk with knock-on implications for travel demand, a report for the Greater London Authority says.  
“The absence of office workers and visitors in central London puts jobs in retail, food and beverage, and entertainment (including arts and culture), at significant risk,” says the report by consultant Arup, real estate advisors Gerald Eve, and the London School of Economics. 
The report focuses on London’s ‘central activities zone’ and considered three possible scenarios for how its economy could change after Covid and also in response to Brexit. 
The scenarios make different assumptions about the number of people who will return to offices, ranging from 40 to 80 per cent. 
In all three scenarios more than 90,000 jobs are judged to be at risk in sectors such as food and beverage, retail, entertainment, plus cleaners, catering and security staff. 
“The entire central activities zone ecosystem is under threat because of the risk to London’s thriving arts, culture, entertainment and hospitality industries” say the authors.