Most people start the new year with a positive outlook and despite the real concerns over rising costs we are seeing some positive news emerging. At the time of writing the Government has removed the need for travellers to test on return to the UK and it looks as though the number of people with Omicron is starting to recede.

Travel companies are already reporting a boom in bookings which is great news for that industry and, whilst Boris has confirmed Plan B will remain in place until 26 January, if numbers of infections follow the trajectory in South Africa, we hope that the need to work from home will be reversed on 26 January as many businesses are wanting to get back to normal – although of course, one needs to think back almost two years to remember what ‘normal’ is!

Assuming this return to work does happen at the end of the month this will be a huge boost to all the ancillary businesses that rely on office workers for their income.

Undoubtedly there are many pressures on household income and businesses and this is going to be another challenging year but surely we deserve to start this year with a positive!