Signs that brighter days are on the horizon

I 've been thinking a lot about rainbows recently. Mainly because the weather 's been that awful I 've seen quite a lot of them, writes Henrietta Brealey.

They are a beautiful thing, breaking through a generally pretty miserable environment.

That 's what the last couple of weeks have felt like in many ways as we 've moved through to Stage 3 of the roadmap.

Yes, there is still very much a pandemic on but, blimey, all those normal things like seeing wider groups of family, pints in the pub, watching Eurovision literally together with a couple of mates NOT over Zoom - all feel incredible.

For businesses in the events, hospitality and visitor attractions sectors early feedback has been positive (aside from some issues with 'no shows ' which I 'll come back to�).

There 's a sense that there 's a whole lot of pent up demand really starting to bubble through. Several have reported how brilliant the atmosphere has been among staff who have been excited and relieved in equal measure to be able to get back to doing what they do best after so many difficult months.

I saw some of that myself when I visited Restaurant at Birmingham College of Food last week. It 's every bit a professional restaurant with incredible quality (and pricing) on food, and it 's also training the next generation on hospitality pros.

It was fantastic - and I can attest that the many weeks of enforced closure have not put them off their stride.

Of course, the pandemic still forms the backdrop to these shining moments of almost normalcy.

For me, every social 'event ' comes with a pre-emptive LFD test, a whole lot of hand sanitiser, masks in public spaces and a layer of extra caution. But it 's certainly worth it.

For businesses, while Stage 3 is off to a positive start, they are still operating under severe restrictions. Social distancing significantly cuts the number of guests that hospitality businesses can accommodate and therefore income they can generate.

Meanwhile Covid debts linger and size of premises and overheads generally remain the same.

It 's why 'no shows ' - people booking tables but not turning up or calling to cancel - hurt hospitality businesses so badly at the moment.

And of course, while no one is expecting a fast, universal bounce back to 9 to 5s in the office five days a week, as long as government guidance remains “work from home if you can ”, footfall in city centres in particular will remain low.

It is important for us all to keep supporting local businesses - and calling out any mates we see thinking about 'no showing ' on their bookings.

A number of businesses are still faced with very difficult decisions and challenging trading environments over the coming weeks.

Just a couple of weeks ago, much-loved veteran of the Birmingham hospitality scene Opus made the heart-breaking decision to close their doors following the impact of the pandemic.

I know that whatever comes next for their authentically brilliant leadership team will be equally as incredible but it is indicative of the challenges the industry is still juggling.

Uncertainty around the India variant has caused some concern about the likely progress to Stage 4 of the roadmap (originally proposed as 'not before ' 21 June).

Safety must always come first - the personal and economic impacts of another major wave in cases would be just too awful to consider.

But businesses really do need answers on what to expect on social distancing, COVID status certification and work from home guidance in order to be able to prepare.

And if certain businesses are going to be significantly curtailed in their ability to generate income by restrictions for a significant further length of time, whether any further support will be forthcoming.

That being said, while there are still dark clouds looming things feel�pretty good, like we 're finally moving in the right direction.

We are currently surveying for our Q2 Quarterly Business Report survey. It is our flagship publication at the Chamber that we 've been using to track local business sentiment (with remarkable accuracy) since the late 1980s.

It will give us a clearer picture of how the wider business community is faring beyond the positive anecdotes.

We may even see that we 're moving beyond rainbows and into patches of sunshine.

Henrietta Brealey is chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce

This column first appeared in yesterday 's Birmingham Post