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The full list of high street shops that will not reopen on April 12th with all the others
Very sad news
Boris Johnson revealed that non-essential retailers will be able to reopen on April 12th at the earliest, however not all shops will be reopening.
Following Monday’s announcement, it was revealed that many of the closed non-essential shops could possibly reopen from April 12th.
Brands such as Selfridges, Primark and Argos will all be allowed to swing open their doors once again, joining the list of supermarkets and other essential shops already open.
However, following a job loss rate of 484 per day, some struggling brands will operate online only.
It is estimated that of the 176,000 retail jobs lost on the high street last year, 71,986 were lost through retailers falling into administration.
A further 11,986 were lost through company voluntary arrangement (CVA) deals used to close loss-making stores such as River Island, Clarks and New Look.
Towards the end of 2020, Edinburgh Woolen Mill Group and Debenhams slashed hundreds of jobs after falling into administration.
Other brands struggling to return to the high street will operate online, such as Paperchase, Jaeger, Bonmarché and Hays Travel, who are all reducing their store counts.
118 Debenhams stores have closed for good with the brand running online under the Boohoo umbrella.
The retail empire comprising of Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Wallis, Topman, Burton, Miss Selfridge will now also run online-only after exchanging owners with Boohoo and Asos.
Industry insiders have also warned of more closures over the next six weeks.
Helen Dickinson, the British Retail Consortium’s chief executive warned that non-food stores have lost £22 billion over the course of the pandemic and that for every day they remain closed, ‘the chances that it will never open again’ increase.
She said: “We welcome the additional clarity provided by the Prime Minister. While we are encouraged by a plan for non-essential stores to reopen, the heavy impact of the pandemic means some may never be able to.
“The cost of lost sales to non-food stores during lockdown is now over £22billion and counting. Every day that a shop remains closed increases the chances that it will never open again – costing jobs and damaging local communities.
“Government should remain flexible and allow non-essential retail to reopen as soon as the data suggests it is safe to do so. Until it is permitted, retailers will need continued support from Government.
“We welcome the PM’s call ‘not to pull the rug out’ from under businesses. To this end, the Government must act on three vital issues – rents, rates and grants.
“To avoid further job losses and permanent job closures, the Chancellor must announce a targeted business rates relief from April and extend the moratorium on debt enforcement, as well as removing state aid caps on Covid business grants.
“This would relieve struggling businesses of bills they cannot currently pay and allow them to trade their way to recovery.”
The major high street brands that will not be reopening on April 12th:
- Topshop – closed all stores (Oxford Street flagship future still unknown), online only
- Dorothy Perkins – closed all stores, online only
- Evans – closed all stores, online only
- Wallis – closed all stores, online only
- Topman – closed all stores, online only
- Burton – closed all stores, online only
- Miss Selfridge – closed all stores, online only
- Debenhams – closed 118 department stores
- Paperchase – closing 27 stores
- Jaeger – reduced store count
- Edinburugh Woolen Mill – reduced store count
- Bonmarché – reduced store count
- Hays Travel – reduced store count
- Prezzo – reduced store count
Commuters could be facing the steepest rise in the cost of train travel in more than a decade just months after prices were already increased.
It has been predicted today that train prices across England and Wales could rise by nearly 5% before the New Year.
The 2021 rise in prices was delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic when train travel was at an all-time low, however, tickets still saw a price rise of 2.6% in March.
Abhijit Tembhekar / Flickr
And this morning, the Retail Prices Index for July 2021 was confirmed as 3.8% by the Office for National Statistics, meaning passengers could see fares rise by 4.8% in 2022, which would be the largest hike since 2012.
This means that the cost of rail travel could increase twice within ten months, and would see a Manchester-Glasgow off-peak return rise by £6.30 to £94.90, according to Metro.
Though all hope isn’t yet gone – changes to the fares in 2022 are still yet to be confirmed.
Jon David Houghton / Wikimedia Commons
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “No decision has been made on national rail fares.
“The government is considering a variety of options and we will announce our decision in due course.”
This news has come as train travel in Manchester and beyond is on the rise – earlier this month, we reported that zero cases of Covid were found in Manchester Piccadilly Train Station, despite thousands of commuters using the station’s services as offices reopen.
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