The £8BILLION Christmas High Street catastrophe: Non-essential’ shops brace for devastating losses

Businesses were today bracing for a punishing four weeks that will see them burn through billions during England’s second national lockdown.

Thousands of bosses and staff of non-essential shops, pubs, restaurants and gyms are waking up to a familiar sense of uncertainty after being ordered to close until at least December 2.

Ministers have been warned that shuttered retailers will lose £8billion this month in what is usually the critical ‘golden quarter’ of Christmas sales.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has extended the furlough scheme amid fears of a jobs bloodbath, but industries say many smaller firms still struggling with rent and overheads could go to the wall. 

Boris Johnson is hopeful of easing the restrictions by the December 2 expiry date although senior ministers have suggested they could be extended. 

Business chiefs from sectors forced to close today limbered up to voice deep concerns about the damage to the economy.

The British Retail Consortium has estimated that non-essential retailers forced to close will lose a total £2billion a week during lockdown.

Tom Ironside, director of policy, this morning said the next four weeks will be ‘extremely difficult’ for many shops.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘They (the Government) have decided that some sorts of retailers supermarkets and pharmacies will be able to trade, and that’s right, but we think some of the restrictions are really quite arbitrary. 

‘The timing of this lockdown is clearly extremely difficult for the retail industry. This is the golden quarter for many retailers, and to lose a month of sales during this period is extremely difficult. 

‘We estimate that for those classified as non-essential retail forced to close, they’ll be losing £2billion pounds a week during this new lockdown.’

Bosses are grappling with a fresh round of restrictions which differ from the lockdown last spring.

Retailers classed as non-essential have been broadened to include homeware stores, clothing, and bookshops. 

Joe Wykes, chief operating officer of Bensons For Beds, said the firm has shored up its online sales system but this would not make up for losses accrued by drop in footfall in physical stores.

He said: ‘We have invested heavily in our online and we hope to do robust trading, but inevitably our sales will take a hit as our online sales can never replace the physical sales in totality.

Asked if the firm is fearful of lockdown being extended past December 2, he said: ‘That’s certainly a concern, in the homewear sector the peak Christmas period, post Christmas into January is critical to our sales and so we remain very vigilant that lockdown isn’t extended beyond December.’

Gyms were one of the last to reopen during the first lockdown, reopening as late as July 25.

Bosses insist that since then they have gone to lengths to make their gyms Covid-secure and bemoan being told to shut once more.

Humphrey Cobbold, chief executive of Pure Gym, said gyms should be categorised as ‘essential’ because exercise is fundamental.

He said this morning: ‘We do consider that gyms are essential, essential for the nation’s health at a time of a health crisis, we regard it as a most unfortunate decision that the Government has taken, it is detriment to the nation’s health and a regressive decision to have taken.

‘We’re seeing very little evidence for transmission of the virus in gyms, and in the PHE data there’s very little evidence of transmission in gyms.’

‘Our operational cash burn rate will be about £4million a week, about half a million pounds a day.

‘Many players in our industry will be teetering on the edge and will be very scared about the future and that’s an issue about the long-run health of the nation and we urge the Government to consider the future of these gyms in the long-run.’

More than 9,500 jobs were put in jeopardy at some of the biggest High Street names as England went into lockdown.

John Lewis cut a further 1,500 jobs yesterday, adding to the 1,300 axed when it permanently shut eight stores in July.

Lloyds Bank announced it was going to make 1,070 more staff redundant on top of the 865 earlier in the pandemic.

And Sainsbury’s have confirmed it will cut around 3,500 jobs across its Argos stores and supermarket meat, fish and deli counters.

Shoe shop Clarks have also put the jobs of all 4,000 of its store staff on notice as part of its fight for survival.

It came as Marks & Spencer reported its first loss in its 94 years as a listed company.

M&S, which has already cut 8,000 staff since March, has seen its large stores suffer while many of its smaller food halls are located in now-empty train stations and airports.

Sunak was due to make a statement to the Commons where he is expected to extend the Government’s furlough scheme, where

Mr Sunak was due to make a statement in the Commons today where he is expected to extend the 80 per cent furlough scheme beyond November for affected business.   

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has been warned by a group of northern Conservative MPs that they do not want their constituencies ‘locked into lockdown’ indefinitely. 

Last night a vote on the restrictions sailed through the Commons with a massive majority, helped with votes from Labour MPs.