6:48 am, February 28, 2021
- Here are the headlines for Sunday, February 28
£5bn business ‘restart grants’ for firms hit hardest by Covid
Pubs, restaurants, shops and other businesses hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic will be boosted by a £5bn grant scheme to help them reopen as the lockdown is eased.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will detail the ‘restart grants’ worth up to £6,000 per premises to help non-essential retailers reopen and trade safely at his Budget on Wednesday.
Hospitality, hotels, gyms, as well as personal care and leisure firms, will be eligible for up to £18,000 per premises as they are due to open later under the plans for easing lockdown.
Rail fare rise up more than inflation from Monday
Rail passengers in England and Wales will be hit by above inflation fare rises on Monday.
Ticket prices will increase by around 2.6 per cent, leading to accusations that the UK Government is ‘pricing the railways out of existence’.
Examples of the potential fare hikes include a Brighton-London annual season ticket going up by £129 to £5,109 and a Manchester-Glasgow off-peak return rising by £2.30 to £90.60.
Free Covid tests for all pupils’ families to help return to schools
Whole families with children in school or college will be able to test themselves for coronavirus twice a week from home under plans for schools to safely reopen in England from March 8.
Free tests will be provided to pupils’ households, as well as those in their childcare or support bubbles, regardless of whether anyone has symptoms, the Government said on Sunday.
The rapid tests will be ordered and collected from local sites or administered through workplace testing programmes, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
6mil Britons become ‘accidental savers’
An estimated 6m employees across Britain have become ‘accidental savers’ during the coronavirus pandemic, a survey suggests.
While many household incomes have been hit hard by the pandemic, some people have seen an unexpected boost to their standard of living, says financial consultancy LCP.
Without actively choosing to do so, this group have accidentally saved – in many cases thousands of pounds each – as a result of being locked down and unable to spend in the same way as before.
WW2 bomb detonated in Exeter
Thousands of Exeter residents have spent a second night away from their homes following the controlled detonation of a Second World War bomb.
Devon and Cornwall Police were alerted after the device was discovered on a building site on private land to the west of the University of Exeter campus at about 9.20am on Friday.
Around 2,600 properties in the vicinity of Glenthorne Road, including 1,400 university students, were evacuated on Friday and Saturday.
Doctor appears in court for traffic violation while performing surgery
The Medical Board of California has said it will investigate a plastic surgeon who appeared in a video conference for his traffic violation trial while operating.
The Sacramento Bee reports Dr Scott Green appeared for his Sacramento Superior Court trial, held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic, from an operating room.
He was dressed in surgical scrubs with a patient undergoing the procedure just out of view. The beeps of medical machinery can be heard in the background.
Dry and sunny
The UK will stay dry and sunny for most, according to the Met Office, but there will be stronger winds than yesterday.
Particularly on the south coast this will make it feel chillier than Saturday.
It will be clear tonight and temperatures will fall with frost expected tomorrow morning in the North and Scotland.
