The High Street Crisis in Britain

With the recent announcement by Debenhams with regards to Store closures it has been confirmed that the store in my town (WGC) will close next year. I feel it is a REAL blow for the local community as the main high street here now has very little in way of major names to attract shoppers and with the Shopping centre also based in the town centre, and where I also work, that has been suffering footfall for several months now, I do think the level of Government support and strategy now needs to be raised to a level in which investment in our high streets has to be substantial or we are going to face witnessing high streets disappearing quickly than we may have initially anticipated. Taxing the online giants that are in direct competition with thev high street and use that tax to invest in the high street may be lone say to save the high street but many may say that should have been done a long time ago when this crisis started, and probably now is too little too late, and I would genuinely agree if many saw it that way, but the problem would be that all the scandals over the level of corporation tax that certain online firms have or haven't paid in the past few years, I would not be at all surprised to see those same firms doing their utmost to avoid paying anything of any new tax that has been suggested lately.
What would ideally help would be the Government really showing real concern and helping by slowly withdrawing austerity measures that have been in place for years that allows people to have more money in their pockets.

I think this could be a HUGE Nail in the coffin for the high street : -

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/9178259/b...ng-latest/

This would primarily change the high street look forever when you consider how vital Boots are for family medical supplies. if the store in my town was to shut, that would really hurt the local economy as although there are two pharmacies based in our Sainsbury's and Waitrose in the and they are small compared to the Boots itself. We should hope and pray that the damage limitation to local pharmacies is done with a sensible degree of consideration. but to see a possible 60,000 job losses is the worrying bit, when for months the Government has wrestled with BREXIT, and I feel the high street crisis has deepened to the point where it has an almost recession like feel to it and he Government has failed to address thr problems and I can only worry that even before we leave the EU, that we will see more news like this being reported on a daily basis. THE GOVERNMENT - WHOEVER IT MAY BE - NEEDS TO ACT WITHOUT DELAY TO STOP THE CRISIS DEEPENING TO THE POINT IN WHICH RECOVERY OF OUR HIGH STREET IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE.

(29-06-2019 01:35 )babelover48 Wrote:  I think this could be a HUGE Nail in the coffin for the high street : -

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/9178259/b...ng-latest/

but to see a possible 60,000 job losses is the worrying bit

Totally false summary. The article does not say this and indeed Boots only employ 55,000 staff. They’ve also said that staff from stores which close will be redeployed to nearby stores so sizeable jobs losses are unlikely.

i don't know when this happened but it seems the CEO of Tesco is quitting early 2020 in a shock departure

Latest shop chain in crisis...
Bonmarche
2,900 jobs are at risk

*** BREAKING NEWS***
24,000 jobs at risk as owners of fashion brands Peacocks and Jaeger file for administrators

*** BIG NEWS***
15,000 jobs at risk as fashion retail Group Arcadia on 'brink of ollapse'

I wonder how many more retail groups face similar position andouldn't be happening at a worse time for those working in the stores affected

(27-11-2020 15:16 )lovebabes56 Wrote:  *** BIG NEWS***
15,000 jobs at risk as fashion retail Group Arcadia on 'brink of ollapse'

I wonder how many more retail groups face similar position andouldn't be happening at a worse time for those working in the stores affected

Hi

It is not only 15,000 jobs going, it is the domestic supply chain and this is another 10,000 jobs. Most of the manufacturing is done in low cost centres but the chain still creates a lot of secondary British jobs.

To this mix add in a £571 Million pension deficit and money owed to service providers, for a lot of people it will be a miserable Christmas, particularly those who are in receipt of a pension.

Speaking to a friend, he was saying for BHS Phillip Green paid in £361 Million, but he had Arcadia at the time, will he want to or even be able to pay this amount into the scheme to cover the shortfall

Arcadia Group has fallen into administration

(30-11-2020 22:37 )lovebabes56 Wrote:  Arcadia Group has fallen into administration

Hi

One other result of this is that Mike Ashley has pulled out of Debenhams rescue talks.

Total jobs losses could be 15,000 Arcadia 10,000 supply chain plus Debenhams and their supply chain 13,000 jobs

Factor in all the pension deficits and it is looking tough for a lot of people.

It is time for the government to stop companies paying out dividends to shareholders from profits, when they have a pension deficit, overall on the FTSE the figures are astounding and should never have been allowed to occur