Research by the Local Data Company (LDC) reveals that over 11,000 stores shut down their businesses permanently over the past year in Great Britain. This includes more than 9,800 retail chain outlets, and over 1,400 independent stores in retail, restaurant and leisure sectors.

Although, the various stimulus measures from the government did help delay and slow down the need to close down some businesses. The pace of closures was 11% less during 2020 when compared with the figures for 2019.

The worst affected were fashion and clothing stores, in addition to bookmakers, estate agents and mobile phone outlets while barbers saw their business grow at the fastest pace despite the prevailing lockdown conditions. Beauty salons, nail bars and fast food outlets also registered a brisk business through 2020, as did supermarkets and grocery stores.

Head of retail at LDC, Lucy Stainton, remarks, “Our latest report shows a marked increase in the structural decline across the physical retail and leisure markets but we would also argue that we aren’t yet close to seeing the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. What remains to be seen are the consequences of government support ending, effectively ‘defrosting’ a significant portion of the market which has been frozen in time since the onset of the pandemic.”