Plan B: How will working from home rules affect people?

"I quite enjoy going into the office on a personal basis really," says Sarah Breen, who lives just outside Newmarket

People in England should start working at home again from Monday where possible, the government has said. What does that mean for the workers returning to their home desks and the businesses which depend on workers' lunchtime trade?

"I quite enjoy going into the office on a personal basis really," says Sarah Breen, who lives just outside Newmarket, in Suffolk.

"It is being with different people and just the banter between everybody.

"It is just nice - getting up, getting dressed and going to work. It is different to just walking downstairs. I do enjoy going into the office.

"But if we have to [work from home] then I will do and I can do my job from home so we will be told by our company what they want us to do."

She says she was a "bit disappointed" when news of the new working from home directive was made.

'We do struggle when people are working from home'

Alethea Stearman runs The Mushy Pea stall on Norwich Market and is concerned about the impact of further working from home and her business

Alethea Stearman runs The Mushy Pea stall, which has been on Norwich Market since it was first set up in 1949.

"We do struggle when people are working from home," she says.

"We miss all the office workers, the council workers and the people that would be in the city daily to do their office jobs. We miss out on their lunchtime trade.

"We haven't regained the loss of the first lockdowns when people were working from home, because so many still are working from home. We really didn't want to be losing anybody else.

"Our fears are that people won't be out and about, they won't be doing their leisure activities, of popping into the city, having lunch, having a coffee, because everybody has been retrained to not do anything other than what is necessary.

"That is what we are missing on the market at the moment - people who used to come in and meet friends for lunch or a coffee. People aren't relaxed, so they are staying away."

'That is going to have a big effect on the business'

Jazz Singh, who runs the vegan and vegetarian Indian Feast stall on Norwich Market, is concerned about the impact of the new rules on his business

Jazz Singh runs the vegan and vegetarian Indian Feast stall on Norwich Market.

He is concerned about what the new rules will mean for his lunchtime trade.

"Last time, lots of our regular customers were working from home," he says.

"They don't come to the city. If all the people are still working from home then there will be less customers in the city and that will have an effect on the food businesses.

"A lot of our customers come three or four times a week but when they are working from home they will only come once or a couple of times a month.

"That [working from home] is going to have a big effect on the business. It is hard because on Norwich Market people only come here when they come to their work.

"People come to work and when they have a break they come to the market."

'It has not come as a surprise'

Dan Goodwin's job requires he remain working in an office

Dan Goodwin is the communities manager at Broadland District Council in Norfolk and he will not be working from home.

"It has not come as a surprise but for me personally it probably won't make a huge amount of difference," he says.

"My job role requires me to be in the building. We are offering a response to residents and working with those in need, delivering food parcels, ensuring they are safe at home, that they have fuel supply and that they can cope and look after themselves.

"That means we have to be able to respond and get out and about to the districts quite quickly."

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He says he is not overly worried about the new variant, adding: "There are plenty of sensible measures out there and we take good precautions and follow the rules.

"Throughout the whole pandemic we have been out delivering and have visited houses of people who are Covid positive and I suppose we have just got used to it."

'I will miss it'

Justine Hall is getting hew now home ready to move into and says she will miss being able to work occasionally at the office

Having previously lived in Cambridge, Justine Hall has just bought a house in Newmarket and is in the process of getting hew new home ready.

She says working from home took getting used to the first time around.

"I am all right with it now," she says.

"I work three or four days a week and I go into the office usually one day a week. It is just nice to go somewhere different - to have a bit of a change and get out of the house and to put on proper clothes.

"If I am not able to go in one day a week I will miss it.

"But I will stick to the rules because I think it is important to protect other people."