More than 11,000 shops shut in 2020 as Covid hammers high streets

A total of 9,877 premises operated by chains and 1,442 independent shops, restaurants and leisure venues shut permanently across England, Scotland and Wales during 2020, according to the Local Data Company (LDC).

However, retail locations across Britain may not yet have felt the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic, experts have warned.

LDC predicts that up to 18,000 more shops, restaurants and leisure outlets could be vacated this year amid the fallout from the collapse of major retailers including Debenhams and Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group.

Fashion retailers were hardest hit during 2020, followed by bookmakers, estate agents and mobile phone shops. Barbers, beauty salons, fast-food outlets and nail bars were among the fastest-growing sectors.

Major city centres were hardest hit by the health crisis. Vacancy rates rose 2.5 percentage points to 16% as prime locations like London suffered from a loss of commuters and tourists.

By contrast, smaller villages proved more resilient, with vacancy rates increasing just 0.4 percentage points to 11%.

The overall level of store closures last year was not as deep as LDC had initially forecast. It had expected at least 14,900 outlets to shut last year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But it said government support, including business rates relief, the furlough scheme and a ban preventing landlords from evicting commercial tenants that were unable to pay rent all stemmed the tide of closures.

As a result, the number of independent stores that closed last year was 11% lower than 2019 levels, LDC said.

But LDC head of retail Lucy Stainton warned that “we aren’t yet close to seeing the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Stainton added: “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.

“With this in mind we would expect to see the state of play in terms of vacancy rates and net change worsening over the course of 2021 and 2022 before levelling out.”