Wales ‘firebreak’ lockdown will close barbershops

Wales has announced a national ‘firebreak’ lockdown which will result in the closing of hair salons and barbershops.

This new lockdown will start from Friday 23 October and will continue until Monday 9 November. Anyone living in Wales will be told to stay at home, while pubs, restaurants, hotels and non-essential shops will shut.

The NHBF has confirmed the lockdown will include hair and beauty businesses and mobile hair and beauty services. The Welsh Government has confirmed the following financial support with more details to follow:

• £1,000 for every business covered by small business rate relief.


• Up to £5,000 for small and medium retail, leisure and hospitality, received automatically.


• Additional discretionary grants for businesses struggling from restrictions.


• The UK government’s support package for employees and self-employed, including the Job Support Scheme and the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme will also be available in Wales.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said the “time-limited ‘firebreak'” will be “a short, sharp shock to turn back the clock, slow down the virus and buy us more time”.

This comes days after it was announced that hairdressers and beauty salons must close from Friday 16 October in Northern Ireland, for a period of four weeks in order to curb the spread of the Coronavirus.

First Minister Arlene Foster said: “We are facing the tough reality of rapidly rising rates of infection. There are increasing numbers of people requiring acute care in our hospitals and sadly we learned yesterday of the death of seven people from Covid-19.

“The Executive has given careful and painstaking consideration of the right blend of actions that will do maximum damage to the virus but minimum harm to life chances today and tomorrow.

“We understand that these interventions will be hard but they will not be in place for a moment longer than they need to be. I would ask everyone to work with us to save lives and protect our health service.”

 

What about the rest of the UK?

For the rest of the UK, however, the National Hair and Beauty Federation said on Instagram: “As it stands, the hair and beauty sector is not being forced to close. We will continue to update members if and when local areas announce specific measures.” 

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