Quarter of adults believe it will take ‘more than a year for normality to return’

Around a quarter of adults in Great Britain believe it will take more than a year for their lives to return to normal following the Covid-19 pandemic, a survey suggests.

Some 17% of people think it could take between four to six months, while just under a fifth (18%) believe it may be between 10 and 12 months, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Only 2% of respondents thought it would be between one and three months, compared to 24% who said they expected it to be more than one year.

Meanwhile, just under a fifth (18%) thought their household’s financial situation would get a little worse in the next 12 months, while some 4% responded that it would get a lot worse.

The ONS questioned adults about their behaviour between November 18 and 22 as part of its Opinions And Lifestyle Survey, receiving 3,631 responses.

The weekly survey aims to understand the impact the pandemic on households and communities in Great Britain.

Data was collected from respondents by the statistics agency while England was under its second lockdown, Wales had concluded its firebreak lockdown and Scotland maintained the five-tier system.

Just over one in 10 adults in Great Britain (12%) said it was either difficult or very difficult to follow the current restrictions they were under, the ONS said.

Of those, and on the reasons they thought it was difficult, around a third (33%) said this was due to the impact on income and household finances.

Some 59% said it was due to the strain on relationships with friends and family, while just over three quarters (76%) responded that it was impacting on their wellbeing.

Nearly half of all respondents (48%) said that their wellbeing was being affected by the coronavirus crisis – for example feeling bored, lonely or stressed.

Among those, a third (29%) said a strain on personal relationships had affected their wellbeing in the past seven days.