Leading Ipswich clothes store Coes has hailed plans to reopen shops by April following the third national coronavirus lockdown as "good news".

Prime minister Boris Johnson said non-essential shops, along with hair and nail salons, will be able to reopen from April 12.

It comes as part of a four-stage reopening of the economy, which Mr Johnson said was “cautious yet irreversible" and "a one-way road to freedom”.

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Reacting to plan, Fiona Coe - marketing manager for independent Suffolk retailer Coes - said: "It's good news.

"In an ideal world, it would have been a bit earlier but I can absolutely understand that we don't want to go back to where we were.

"This has to be the last lockdown, so I think everyone would rather pause for a couple more weeks rather than rush back.

"It's nice to know when the date is. It gives us the opportunity to make sure the shop is really well merchandised, that all our social distancing is in place and that we've trained all our staff on any new regulations.

"If it had been a shorter time scale, we could still have done it anyway. But this gives us a bit of time now to plan."