Homebound City workers are hitting the bottle. The coronavirus crisis has prompted more and more finance staff to turn to alcohol to cope with the stress of the pandemic, addiction specialists and mental health counsellors are warning.

“Alcohol consumption has rocketed,” said Richard Kingdon, managing director of City Beacon, an addiction counselling service based in the City of London. “Employers are not able to monitor drinking problems of their staff. You could drink a bottle of wine a day and no one's going to say anything.”