BORIS Johnson has said he will broadly lift the work-from-home guidance and set out major relaxations of the lockdown to pave the way for theatres and sports stadiums to reopen in England.

The Prime Minister said on Friday that it will be up to employers to discuss with workers whether it is safe to return from August 1, as he detailed new measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

From that date, he said, most remaining leisure centres will reopen and indoor performances with live audiences can resume, with trials beginning for sports stadiums to reopen from October.

Mr Johnson also immediately scrapped the advice to avoid public transport in England and detailed plans to extinguish local outbreaks of coronavirus to avoid another national shutdown.

“It is my strong and sincere hope that we will be able to review the outstanding restrictions and allow a more significant return to normality from November, at the earliest, possibly in time for Christmas,” he added.

But the relaxation of the strict rules will bring the nation into a new normal, with mask-wearing and social distancing remaining essential parts of life for now.

The PM’s easing of the work-from-home guidance potentially pits him against his chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, who earlier said there is “absolutely no reason” to change the advice.

But the PM told his Downing Street press conference: “It is not for government to decide how employers should run their companies and whether they want their workforces in the office or not – that is for companies.”

In response to a question from the public, the PM said it “may conceivably be possible” to depart from social distancing measures “by November at the earliest”.

Chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty has previously warned that social distancing measures will need to stay in place until the discovery of a vaccine or highly-effective drugs to reduce Covid-19’s severity.

Mr Johnson said Sir Patrick and Prof Whitty had taken part in a Cabinet discussion before the relaxation was announced but said “in the end decisions are taken by the elected politicians”.

From next month, wedding receptions for up to 30 people can resume, and bowling, skating rinks, casinos and beauticians can reopen as long as they have measures in place to reduce Covid-19 transmission.

Pilots to reopen sports stadiums will include the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield from July 31 and the Glorious Goodwood horse racing festival from August 1.

Nightclubs and soft play areas, however, will have to remain closed.

In an attempt to prevent another nationwide shutdown, Mr Johnson said local authorities in England will have new powers from Saturday to close specific premises, shut outdoor spaces and cancel events.

He also set out his plans to prepare the NHS for a potential second spike in Covid-19 cases coinciding with the flu season this winter, saying the nation must be “hoping for the best, but planning for the worst”.

An extra £3 billion funding for the NHS in England, and extra cash for the devolved nations, will allow Nightingale hospitals to remain open and for private hospital capacity to be used until the end of March.

Ministers hope this will mean hospitals have sufficient capacity to deal with a possible spike in Covid-19 cases during the already trying winter season while allowing routine treatments and procedures to continue.

Mr Johnson also committed to a new target of reaching the capacity for 500,000 coronavirus tests a day by November in order to distinguish between flu and Covid-19 symptoms, and to rolling out the “biggest ever flu vaccination programme”.

His pledges come after a report commissioned by Sir Patrick, his top scientific adviser, warned there could be 120,000 hospital deaths in a “reasonable worst-case scenario”.

London mayor Sadiq Khan quickly raised concerns over the move to encourage staff back to workplaces, warning Tubes in the capital cannot be allowed to become “packed” again.

“It’s really important that we don’t have a return to work that leads to a second wave,” he told the PA news agency. “That would be catastrophic for our economy and could overrun the NHS and lead to more lives being lost.”

The PM’s latest easing of the lockdown came as Government figures showed the growth rate of coronavirus transmission increased slightly in the last week.