For three months of 2020 everything stopped. But for many people money kept coming in – whether via their employer or from the furlough scheme.

Now, as the country has reopened and the economy is spluttering back into gear people are spending what they may have saved in lockdown.

The question is whether a spending flurry now will be enough to save industries which were previously in a stranglehold.

According to Richard Norrington, chief executive of Ipswich Building Society, the housing market has seen an uptick in transactions since lockdown, but people are looking for different qualities in a home.

He said: “Since the easing of lockdown restrictions, and with valuers able to resume activity, we have seen a real upturn in mortgage business both for people remortgaging their existing property and also for purchases, whether it’s existing borrowers moving house or first time buyers seeking a property of their own after many months living at close quarters with parents and siblings.

“This uptick indicates market confidence is returning, at least in the short term, and the recent government stamp duty holiday for purchases under £500,000 has been a welcome move for buyers and has certainly gone some way in stimulating sales.

“Interestingly we have been starting to see changes in what people consider as essential features of a property, with the culture shift to working from home and also the impact of lockdown for those who were unable to access a garden or outside space.”

Mr Norrington’s observations are backed up by data provided by Savills estate agents.

Of 378 local authorities in the UK all but three reported more sales in the four weeks to August 16 compared to the same period last year.

In every district in Suffolk and Norfolk the housing market saw greater activity.

Babergh, in south Suffolk, lead the way with 102pc growth.

As a rule rural areas grew more than their urbanised counterparts, though even these saw improvements on the figures from 12 months ago.

The Norwich market was 54pc busier, Great Yarmouth 50pc and Ipswich 35pc.

Not only did Savills find that the housing market was more animated than previously, it found that the pandemic caused home-buyers to re-evaluate what they looked for in a home.

A survey of 550 buyers and sellers conducted in June found that 74pc had reassessed their work-life balance because of Covid-19.

The same survey found that it had greatly increased people’s desire to move home, in part as a result of this reassessment. Retailers of higher-priced items like cars and boats have reported similar trends.

Chris Gaster, sales administrator at the Norfolk Yacht Company, said: “We have had a big surge since reopening.

“In the first two months we sold over 100 boats, which for a company that normally does about 330 in a year, that’s a massive influx.

“A lot of people see their boat as a good opportunity to enjoy themselves separate from a lot of people, although the rivers on the Broads have been quite busy.

“We’ve had a lot of new customers who would not have though of buying a boat beforehand, but we also have had a lot of people coming back to boating because they can’t travel abroad.”

People are also looking to splash out on cars.

Jim Nash, sales manager and group buyer at Richard Nash, said the company had seen a lot of enquiries and sales since reopening in June.

The user and nearly new car seller had two distinct periods of interest.

“Initially there was a rush of people looking to buy entry-level vehicles,” Mr Nash said. “People going back to work but who were, understandably, put off taking public transportat.

“But now we’re seeing a lot of people who are looking at this year and are saying they’re not going to have a holiday - so they want to spend their money on something else.

“They’ve perhaps taken this whole situation as a chance to really examine things and say: ‘I’ve always wanted that Mercedes or that BMW. I can afford it, so I’m going to treat myself’.”

These expensive purchases may keep money within the UK, but many of them have been financed with cash originally set aside for foreign holidays.

Those who have not chosen to spend it elsewhere are looking ahead in the calendar in order to get their fix of sunshine.

Nick Lee, managing director of Broadland Travel Worldchoice in North Walsham, said he had up to treble the bookings for summer 2021 with customers getting holidays in the diary as well as rebooking 2020 plans. “A lot of people are going to eastern Europe, so we’re seeing a lot of people going to Greece and Turkey. We did take a hit they locked down Spain but the demand is there,” he said. “We’ve got bookings into 2022 now. A lot of people are enquiring about the Canary Islands as they’ve had relatively low cases but currently people are being advised not to go there as it’s classified with Spain.”

Despite the spending spike funnelling more money into the East’s economy there is evidence that the pandemic is only further entrenching inequalities in British society.

Back in June Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said Covid-19’s immediate effects on inequality “looked very substantial and very profound”.

According to Xiaowei Xu, a senior research economist at the IFS, the pandemic has hit those on low-incomes the hardest.

High-earners were more likely to continue working throughout lockdown, while lower-earners were less likely to be able to work from home.

Those on higher incomes are also more likely to spend a higher percentage of their income on things that were off-limits during lockdown – such as public transport or hotels and restaurants.

This allowed them to save during spring and splurge throughout summer.

With going abroad this year out of the question for many and the lockdown causing people to re-evaluate their lifestyles, this disposable income seems to have driven the boom in big ticket purchases that we have seen in the East.