Arcadia threat underlines desperate plight of coronavirus-hit high street

Britain's struggling retail industry has been one of the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced the closure of many stores.

With the traditional high street already weakened by the shift to internet shopping, the COVID-19 crisis has only served to accelerate the online trend, hammering the big names.

While Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Boots and John Lewis are slashing thousands of jobs, other well-known brands, such as Oasis and Warehouse, have disappeared from the high street altogether.

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Fashion chains Peacocks and Jaeger also recently went into administration - putting more than 4,700 staff at risk.

Data compiled by Sky News shows retail has so far seen more job losses than any other sector as a result of the coronavirus and resulting lockdowns - currently topping 39,000.

And this total threatens to rise further with around 13,000 posts on the line as Sir Philip Green's retail empire faces collapse.

Sky News exclusively revealed that the Arcadia Group, which runs the TopShop, Dorothy Perkins and Burton brands, is expected to appoint Deloitte as administrators in the coming days.

Its failure would make it among the biggest casualties of the pandemic to date in terms of job losses.

Sky News business presenter Ian King said: "It's cataclysmic news for the high street if this comes to pass.

"Don't underestimate the damage that is done to a high street when a well-known retailer like some of the Arcadia Group's brands goes bust and you see the shutters coming down.

"It's one less reason for shoppers to visit a particular high street."

David Gill of the retail union Usdaw, which has more than 400,000 members, said 2020 had been "a terrible year for the high street".

He said: "Retail job losses and store closures are absolutely devastating and lays bare the scale of the challenge the industry faces.

"Each one of those job losses is a personal tragedy for the individual worker and store closures are scarring our high streets and communities."

He argued the need for unions, employers and the government to work together to develop a recovery plan.

Mr Gill added: "We have long called for an industrial strategy for retail to help a sector that was already struggling before the coronavirus emergency.

"The government needs to level the playing field on taxation between online and the high street, reform business rates that are strangling so many businesses, as well as enabling councils to breathe new life into town centres and make them community hubs.

"We have a choice here. Do we want to see the high street go to the wall, or do we want to save it?

"Retail is an important feature of our towns and cities, it employs three million people across the UK and we need a recovery plan to get the industry back on its feet."