Shops have been given the go ahead to stay open until 10pm when they welcome back the public from next month. 

All retailers will be allowed to reopen from April 12 under the Government's current plan to ease lockdown restrictions. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to give an update on his road map next week, with many hopeful shops will still be allowed to open as planned. 

The changes will give people greater flexibility to avoid peak times and ease transport pressures when non-essential shops open on April 12 at the earliest, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

When retail is reopened as part of the Prime Minister’s lockdown road map, shops will have the flexibility to open until 10pm Monday to Saturday following the publication of a written ministerial statement on Thursday.

The Government is also extending flexible working hours on construction sites, allowing food deliveries to supermarkets over more time periods, and keeping the flexibility for pubs and restaurants to put up marquees to help increase seating capacity in a Covid-secure way.

Mr Jenrick said: “To support businesses to reopen and recover, I’ve extended measures to allow shops to stay open for longer.

“This is part of a package of support to help reopen our shops and high streets safely – backed by £56 million.

“This will provide a much-needed boost for many businesses – protecting jobs, reducing pressure on public transport and supporting people and communities to continue to visit their high streets safely and shop locally.”

It comes as the coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, across the UK has risen slightly, according to the latest Government figures.

The data shows the R rate is now between 0.7 and 0.9 compared to a figure of between 0.6 and 0.9 last week.

R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect.

When the figure is above one, an outbreak can grow exponentially, but when it is below one, it means the epidemic is shrinking.

An R number between 0.7 and 0.9 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between seven and nine other people.

The latest growth rate is between minus 5 per cent to minus 2 per cent, which means the number of new infections is shrinking by between 2 per cent and 5 per cent every day.