3:32 pm, December 30, 2020
More car dealers will have to operate click and collect services from New Year’s Eve, as Tier 4 restrictions have been widened to more parts of the UK.
Around three quarters of the country will be in either Tier 3 or the toughest Tier 4 restrictions from tomorrow morning (Dec 31).
Some 20m people will be in Tier 4, meaning a total of 44m people are in the strictest of restrictions, or 78 per cent of the population of England.
All non-essential businesses have to close in Tier 4 areas and people are told to stay at home.
Businesses – which include car dealers – can operate click-and-collect/deliver services, though, while garages and MOT centres can still trade.
The full list of areas placed into Tier 4 from December 31 is…
- the city of Leicester
- Leicestershire (Oadby and Wigston, Harborough, Hinckley and Bosworth, Blaby, Charnwood, North West Leicestershire, Melton)
- Lincolnshire (City of Lincoln, Boston, South Kesteven, West Lindsey, North Kesteven, South Holland, East Lindsey)
- Northamptonshire (Corby, Daventry, East Northamptonshire, Kettering, Northampton, South Northamptonshire, Wellingborough)
- Derby and Derbyshire (Derby, Amber Valley, South Derbyshire, Bolsover, North East Derbyshire, Chesterfield, Erewash, Derbyshire Dales, High Peak)
- Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (Gedling, Ashfield, Mansfield, Rushcliffe, Bassetlaw, Newark and Sherwood, Broxtowe)
- Birmingham and Black Country (Dudley, Birmingham, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton)
- Coventry
- Solihull
- Warwickshire (Rugby, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Warwick, North Warwickshire, Stratford-upon-Avon)
- Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent (East Staffordshire, Stafford, South Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, Lichfield, Staffordshire Moorlands, Newcastle under Lyme, Tamworth, Stoke-on-Trent)
- Lancashire (Burnley, Pendle, Blackburn with Darwen, Ribble Valley, Blackpool, Preston, Hyndburn, Chorley, Fylde, Lancaster, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire, Wyre)
- Cheshire and Warrington (Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Warrington)
- Cumbria (Eden, Carlisle, South Lakeland, Barrow-in-Furness, Copeland, Allerdale)
- Greater Manchester (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan)
- Tees Valley (Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees )
- North East (County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside, Sunderland)
- Gloucestershire (Gloucester, Forest of Dean, Cotswolds, Tewkesbury, Stroud, Cheltenham)
- Somerset Council (Mendip, Sedgemoor, Somerset West and Taunton, South Somerset)
- Swindon
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
- Isle of Wight
- New Forest
The areas join Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, Essex, Surrey and the remainder of Hampshire which were placed into Tier 4 on Boxing Day, and areas of London, the south-east and the east of England that were placed in Tier 4 on Sunday, December 20.
Health secretary Matt Hancock (pictured) said told MPs that the majority of new cases recorded yesterday ‘are believed to be the new variant’.
He added: ‘Even in most areas not moving into Tier 4, cases are rising too, and it is therefore necessary to apply Tier 3 measures more broadly too – including in Liverpool and North Yorkshire.
‘The rest of Yorkshire remains in Tier 3. These changes will take effect from 00:01 tomorrow morning.
‘The new variant means that three quarters of the population are now going to be in Tier 4 and almost all of the country in Tiers 3 and 4.
‘And I know that Tier 3 and 4 measures place a significant burden on people, and especially on businesses affected, but I am afraid it is absolutely necessary because of the number of cases that we’ve seen.
‘But where we are still able to give places greater freedoms, we will continue to do so.’
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