Restaurants and cafes could turn outdoor seating areas into stalls to serve customers food and drinks within weeks, according to reports.
Under Government plans reported in the Sunday Telegraph, businesses that already have licences for outdoor tables and chairs could turn them into market-style stalls, in a bid to help kickstart a hospitality sector hamstrung by the coronavirus lockdown.
Ministers are reportedly even considering allowing any restaurant or cafe to set up the stalls - whether they have an outdoor licence or not - provided the move would not block the pavement for disabled people.
Founder of urban advisory groups Create Streets Nicholas Boys Smith has urged Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, to waive the licences.
The move could create a "more vibrant style of continental town centres in the summer," a Government source told the Telegraph.
The market stalls plan would be part of a gradual easing of the lockdown, and could pave the way for restaurants and cafes to reopen fully later in the summer, provided infection rates remain under control.
Although restaurants and bars have been closed to customers since March, the Government relaxed rules to allow them to operate a hot food takeaway service.
Boris Johnson is also reportedly considering relaxing the Sunday trading rules, which mean that many businesses normally have shorter opening hours.
Meanwhile small, socially-distanced open-air weddings could also be allowed to take place from July, the Telegraph reported.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Imam Asim Yusef, of the Board of British Scholars and Imams, and Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, held separate talks with Mr Jenrick this week to discuss reopening places of worship for private prayer.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government declined to comment but said that the Government was looking for sensible ways of encouraging certain parts of the economy to reopen safely.
