UK government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic is drawing positive response from the public, says findings of three surveys on Thursday (1).
More people supported the government's response to the pandemic than they were critical earlier since May last year, a Kantar Public survey said.
Its March poll showed 48 per cent of people thought the government was handling the Covid-19 outbreak very or fairly well, up three points from February, while those who thought it had handled it poorly remained at 46 per cent.
Britain has suffered Europe’s biggest Covid-19 death toll but has raced ahead of other European countries with its Covid-19 vaccinations this year.
More than 30 million Britons so far have received their first dose of a vaccine.
According to a poll, it showed more people expected the economy would be doing better in 12 months' time - 32 per cent compared with 23 per cent in February - while a third said the pandemic hurt their incomes, down from 35 per cent in February and 42 per cent in January.
The British Chambers of Commerce said 55 per cent of member firms expected higher turnover in 12 months ahead - the highest in a year - although immediate business conditions were well below pre-pandemic levels as the country began 2021 under lockdown.
"The marked improvement in business confidence suggests that the expected first-quarter contraction in output will be the nadir for the UK economy in 2021," Suren Thiru, the BCC's head of economics, said.
"However, the economic scarring from Covid may mean that the recovery is dramatically uneven across different sectors, locations and cohorts of people."
Investment and hiring intentions for the year ahead picked up too, the Institute of Directors said.
Kantar polled 1,102 people between March 25 and March 29. The BCC's poll was based on responses gathered from 6,103 firms between Feb. 15 and March 11.
The IoD surveyed 703 firms between March 12 and March 29.
