Grant Shapps today said it is “safe” for the public to return to work and that he stands ready to put on extra trains as people head back to offices and workplaces.
“What we’re saying to people is it is now safe to go back to work and your employer should have made arrangements which are appropriate to make sure that it’s coronavirus safe to work,” he said on Sky News. “You will see some changes if you haven’t been in for a bit.”
The Transport Secretary said that getting back to the camaraderie of office life was vital to the mental health of some people, especially young workers trapped in small flats.
“If you think about somebody who’s maybe at the younger end of the workforce, perhaps, lives in an apartment or a shared flat, is literally spending their days on Zoom from a corner of their bedroom,” he said. “You can see why for a lot of people’s mental health, it is important to be able to return back to a safe workplace.”
Mr Shapps said people had missed “that human spark” of being with others.
LBC presenter Nick Ferrari pointed out to the Cabinet minister that he was not himself back at his HQ in Victoria, but was conducting a round of interviews from the study at his home in Hertfordshire. Mr Shapps said: “I was actually going in on an ad-hoc basis throughout.”
He estimated that “probably a quarter” of his departmental staff would be back at their desks next week as the new school term starts, saying many were being forced to stay at home due to office renovations. Asked whether the transport system is fit and safe for more workers to be travelling on as they return to work, Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast: “Yeah, so it’s obviously not without its challenges, but we’re ramping it up so that the transport system will be back and, in particular, putting on additional coaches bespoke for the schoolchildren returning in many cases.”
Asked whether he himself has been on a train, the Transport Secretary added: “Yes I have, yes. I go on them all the time actually because in my job, as you can imagine, I go on them a lot.
“What I tend to find, in London they are a bit busier. They’re up to about 40 or even 50 per cent of where they were. Out of town they tend to be less busy. The key thing is to make sure there is sufficient social distancing with the one metre-plus [rule] which there will be, certainly on lines outside of London.”
Mr Shapps reassured commuters that more services will be laid on to prevent the network getting too busy. He told BBC Breakfast: “At the moment all the public transport is very much underused — probably at about a third of its usual levels. We think now, with the guidance that is in place, that there is capacity for more people on public transport.”
He added: “Often the first few days of school when a lot more people are using public transport — partly because also parents tend to go back to work when their children are at school — that does tend to create pressures and we’ll be watching those very carefully and looking to, for example, in some cases, run additional services where we see those problems bubble.up."