Prime Minister Boris Johson has said people should now stop working from home and head back to their workplaces.
Speaking in a briefing from Downing Street on Friday afternoon Mr Johnson said the Government was changing its advice telling people to work from home where possible.
He said instead employers should decide if it is safe to bring employees back and, in consultation with employees, reduce home working.
Mr Johnson is also changing the advice on public transport - saying it is safe for people to use to get to and from work.
He said people should continue to use other modes of transport of they can.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has warned the Government should not encourage people to return to their workplaces if it means overcrowding the Tubes, as was seen at the start of the pandemic.
He told the PA news agency: “It’s really important if the Government is going to be asking people to return to work they do so safely.
“That means making sure they don’t have Tubes packed like they were before the pandemic.
“So I’d ask employers to make sure start and finish times are staggered to avoid the rush hour.
“But we’ve also got to make sure that places of work have the adaptations to make sure they’re safe – hand sanitisers being available, social distancing measures being in place, there being proper signage.
“It’s really important that we don’t have a return to work that leads to a second wave.
“That would be catastrophic for our economy and could overrun the NHS and lead to more lives being lost.”
The Prime Minister said: “If the place of work is Covid-secure then our view is that it is safe.
“But, whether people should go into work, whether they need to go into work, is not something that the Government can decide.
“It is up to employers to decide, with their employees, whether they think the time has come for them to be more productive in a place of work for a greater portion of the week than staying at home.”
