Optimism for Peterborough’s coronavirus recovery with city centre bounceback and large scale recruitment programmes

Peterborough is doing better than the national average when it comes to recovery, according to Tom Hennessy, chief executive of Opportunity Peterborough, the not-for-profit body which aims to boost economic development in the city.

And despite a number of job losses - with more set to follow once the Government’s furlough scheme ends in October - several large scale recruitment programmes are being investigated while the city centre is set to benefit from millions of pounds of investment.

Speaking to the Peterborough Telegraph, Mr Hennessy said: “The city centre in particular is coming back pretty well, above average, particularly at evenings and weekends. It’s been helped by the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme, but even before then we were seeing above average returns to normality.

“We’re not there yet, but it’s positive news for retailers, cafés and bars.

“With the re-opening of retail businesses we did see pretty strong demand and footfall into the city centre. It’s nowhere near pre-Covid but above the national average. The layout of the city centre encourages confidence with the amount of space.”

According to data from the Centre for Cities which measures footfall during the day, evenings and weekends, as well as the city centre workforce, Peterborough has a higher recovery rate than the average with a score of 65 compared to 45 nationally.

In the first weekend in July, footfall was said to be at four-fifths the level it was pre-lockdown.

However, the recovery could be at risk at the end of October when the Government’s furlough scheme comes to an end, with a large number of redundancies expected across the country.

Mr Hennessy said: “I don’t think we can escape the fact for some businesses this will have been putting off the inevitable.

“From conversations we’ve been having with businesses they are more positive than they have been for opportunities of recovery.

“We’re getting stories from a national level of large retailers and restaurant chains who have been hit particular hard, but lockdown is easing and many businesses which have been impacted so far will see a return to normality. It won’t return overnight, but we’re seeing good indications that businesses are surviving and doing well.

“It’s not the case for all, but we’re reasonably positive. I don’t think it will be as bad as some may have thought in the earlier stages (of the pandemic).

“The feedback from businesses is they are in a more positive place than they were in lockdown. The sense is that there won’t be the necessity to make redundancies and the Government’s job protection scheme has protected jobs during that critical period. There will be some redundancies, but less than had been thought previously.”

And in more positive news, Mr Hennessy added: “We are also looking at a number of large scale recruitment programmes from the likes of URBN, AM Fresh, Lidl and McCormick.”