Spending fell '36.5% annually in April'

Barclaycard said this was helped by people continuing to support local businesses, with more than half (57%) in its consumer research saying the current environment has made them realise how much they value them. As a result, adults are planning to spend more in local retailers including butchers (27%), cafes and restaurants (26%) and farmers’ markets (23%) when social distancing restrictions are eased further. Esme Harwood, director at Barclaycard, said: “A renewed sense of community may be welcome news for independent businesses, with a growing desire to support local stores in life after lockdown.” Meanwhile, online spending on DIY increased by 26.5% annually in April. After ordering pubs, bars, restaurants, theatres, gyms and leisure centres across the country to close indefinitely, Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the public on March23; outlining strict exercise and shopping limits, ordering all shops other than food stores and pharmacies to close, and implementing a ban on public gatherings of two or more people.FirstSecretary of State Dominic Raab, while deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovered from coronavirus (COVID-19), announced on April 16 that the U.K. lockdownwouldcontinuefor at least another three weeks. On May 10, the government released preliminary guidelines on how the country is to exit the lockdown while setting out plans for atentativeeasingonsocial restrictions in the coming months. (Pictured) NHS Lead Research Nurse Arlene Lee poses inside the Naive at Westminster Abbey in London, England on May 11. A rise in the popularity of baking during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown appears to have caused many major supermarkets across the UK to suffer a shortage of flour in recent weeks. Over 125,000 birthday cards were sent to Captain Tom Moore, who raised over £30 million by walking 100 laps of his 25 metre (82 feet) garden before his 100th birthday, which were organised in the Great Hall of the temporarily-closed Bedford School in Bedford, England on April 28.   NHS workers hold a minute's silence outside the main entrance of Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, England on April 28. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warned the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could see the U.K. economy shrink by a record 35 percent by June.  A man wears a religious placard on Market Street in Manchester, England on March 25.  Workers sell food and household items to local residents from their ice cream van at a supported housing estate in west Belfast, Northern Ireland on April 1. Soldiers and private contractors help to prepare the ExCel centre in London, which is being made into the temporary NHS Nightingale hospital comprising two wards, each of 2,000 people, to help tackle coronavirus, on March 30.  Prime Minister Boris Johnson gives a press conference on the ongoing situation with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic with chief medical officer Chris Whitty (L) and Chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance (R) in Downing Street after he had taken part in the government's emergency Cobra meeting in London, England on March 16.