One in ten UK businesses impacted by riots

The Local Data Company has analysed reports of 28 town centres impacted by the riots, which started in Tottenham on Saturday and have since spread around the capital and country, last night spreading to Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham.

In the 28 towns 48,404 shops, pubs, restaurants and clubs have been directly or indirectly impacted by the disorder with independent outlets accounting for 65.67% of these.

The Local Data company tracks 475,809 retail and leisure premises with 10.2% of these UK businesses impacted by the recent riots.  In addition to this there are some standalone supermarkets and retail parks such as in Croydon that have also been attacked but not included in the figures, so the overall picture could be even worse.

Matthew Hopkinson, director at the Local Data Company said: “These figures are horrifying in terms of the damage that has been done to an already struggling sector. The retail sector is a major contributor to inner city regeneration projects as well as employing thousands of people.

“The fact that over 65% of those affected are Independents shows how random and thoughtless the actions of this criminal minority are. These businesses are the livelihoods of many people and the ability to bounce back from this has yet to be seen. It is the last thing that the High Street let alone the country needed.  It is important that the law abiding majority offer as much support as they can to these affected businesses.”

• Interrogate the data from the Local Data Company here