What Manchester's proposed Tier 3 lockdown could mean for hair and beauty salons

After a 10 day standoff with Downing Street and a "provocative ultimatum" delivered to Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister's midday deadline for agreeing a deal with Greater Manchester leaders on tougher coronavirus measures in the city has now passed without an official announcement.

The proposed Tier 3 measures in the area would prohibit all social mixing indoors and in private gardens, and would see pubs and bars closed. Such restrictions are already in place in Liverpool and Merseyside. While hairdressers and beauty salons aren't expected to close under Tier 3, the aftermath could still be devastating for businesses.

CEO of the British Beauty Council, Millie Kendal, says, "The challenge with Tier 2 and 3 for our hair and beauty businesses is that the local authority can decide in consultation with the government whether to keep businesses open, but keeping businesses open with no foot traffic in sight may not always be the best decision."

She adds, "we want our businesses open of course, but if they have to keep staff on, pay rent, utilities, taxes and so on, with no financial support from the government whatsoever and if their footfall drops to below where it is now, which in most cases is less than 50 per cent of pre-Covid numbers, it is just untenable to stay open. It is a real dilemma because we want to work, we are Covid secure and ready to see our clients, but these Tiers are already reducing footfall in city centres and the new working from home orders are significantly impacting our bookings."

This rings true for Georgina Barnes, General Manager of hair and beauty salon House of Evelyn in Manchester. "If we go into Tier 3, lockdown and shutting us down would be a better solution for us, it could act as a circuit breaker," she says. "Keeping us open while pubs and bars are closed means we are left with no customers coming through our doors and no financial support." 

Since the threat of an introduction of Tier 3 measures in Manchester came about House of Evelyn's usual customer flow has already been impacted, with many feeling reluctant to travel into the city. "Our salon is possibly one of the safest places you can be right now because we are doing everything to protect our clients' safety; everything is sprayed clean, we have temperature checks and we are taking all the necessary precautions, but we are still being left in limbo by the government."

Salons such as Georgina's have continued to go above and beyond in order to operate safely and meet government guidelines to keep their doors open. Having made extra costs for more cleaning staff and equipment, Georgina's says the salon has "operated at a loss" and is now confused as to how the salon will make it through new Tier 3 measures without financial aid.