It will take more than half-price dinners to dig us out of this hole, writes Sir ROCCO FORTE 

Does the Government really want to get the economy moving again? Because if so, it is going about it in a funny way.

Today the Office for National Statistics is expected to announce that Britain’s economy has officially entered a recession after shrinking by a record 20 per cent in the second quarter of this year.

And given that almost every business was forced by the draconian lockdown to grind to a halt, it’s not hard to see why.

Even with the gradual easing of restrictions in recent weeks the raft of mixed messages coming out of Downing Street has only added to the chaos. 

Sudden changes to quarantine rules, bizarre claims by Government scientists that if schools are to reopen pubs must close again, persistent talk of a ‘second wave’ and endless warnings about the possibility of new local lockdowns – all have done the very opposite of engendering confidence in British business.

For small companies in particular – the backbone of Britain – which have spent the past months making extensive preparations to reopen their doors, last-minute changes may scupper any prospect of them reopening.

Of course, some businesses are seeing a return to normal life. In particular, Britain’s restaurants and cafes have been buoyed by the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

Yesterday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak hailed as ‘amazing’ Treasury data that showed how diners used the discount system more than 10.5million times in its first week.

I agree that it has been a boon to the hospitality industry which, until the scheme was announced, was on the verge of collapse. 

I suspect, too, that some benefits have been reaped by other nearby retailers as people are encouraged to return to city centres and high streets, the beating hearts of society in pre-pandemic times.

According to the retail analysts Springboard, last week footfall rose by almost 20 per cent after 6pm on UK high streets between Monday and Wednesday.

That’s the good news. But rather than toasting Eat Out to Help Out as an ‘amazing’ feat, I fear that the success of the Government’s restaurant rescue scheme has revealed a wholly unpalatable paradox at the heart of Britain’s response to this pandemic.

I don’t doubt that many people remain genuinely frightened by the Government’s propaganda about the risks of coronavirus.

But many others who now appear more than happy to venture from their homes to enjoy a half-price pizza or curry at ‘Dishy Rishi’s’ expense are seemingly resistant to leaving their homes to do the one thing that will actually fire up Britain’s economy: get back into the workplace and revive our dead or dying city centres.

If people are willing to travel into towns – quite possibly on public transport – to queue up outside a restaurant or cafe and spend two hours at the table in a safe and socially-distanced way, why won’t they do the same at the office? And why are so many bosses facilitating this reluctance?

As a businessman who has run my own hotel chain for more than 20 years, I have watched in horror as a succession of large companies have made it clear that they are willing to put the economy at risk for the sake of placating out-of-date concerns about the lethality of Covid-19.

The simple truth is that this virus isn’t as dangerous as it once was – and yet a recent audit by this paper of 30 of Britain’s biggest firms, representing 320,000 employees, showed that just 17 per cent of workers planned to return their offices at the start of this month.

Meanwhile, business giants like NatWest have responded to the chaos by deciding to let many staff work from home till next year. As for the civil service, only a small minority are reportedly back at their workstations.

Where is the leadership we need to get Britain moving again? The Government’s response is to continue to instil what is now misplaced fear in the population.

If ever there was a time for level heads and an appreciation of the facts it is now. The average age of those who have died from Covid-19 is 80 plus, while more than 90 per cent of victims had underlying health conditions.

Yes, each of those deaths is a tragedy, but at the risk of sounding callous, do they warrant the shut-down of an entire country? The vast majority of the population is in little danger of death by Covid. 

In fact, according to Cambridge University statistician Sir David Spiegelhalter, Britons under the age of 50 are more likely to die in a car accident. 

So as we move ahead, it’s quite clear who in our population is vulnerable and should shield themselves.

Those that can’t, such as those in care homes, must be protected. But the rest of us should be allowed to get on with our lives.

Yet the Prime Minister and his Cabinet prefer to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the economic havoc now gathering pace. 

The Office for National Statistics has confirmed that 730,000 jobs have been lost from company payrolls since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March.

Between April and June alone, the number in work plummeted by 220,000. That amounts to the largest quarterly fall in employment in over a decade – a statistic made even more staggering when you consider that it doesn’t include the millions who are currently furloughed.

In my business, the hotel industry, which was not allowed to reopen till early July, the situation is dire.

The outlook for the rest of the year is so bleak that I’ve had little choice but to make 88 people redundant out of a total staff of 500 in my UK hotels.

If the Government wants to revive the economy, to prevent millions of lives being wrecked, it must announce a return to normal life that extends beyond offering people a discount at Nandos.

At the end of the day, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

• Sir Rocco Forte is chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels