BRC chief calls on MPs to extend rent moratorium or face further retail closures

British Retail Consortium CEO Helen Dickinson was one of a number of business leaders to call for more support for business - including an extension of the rent moratorium - at a meeting of the Treasury Select Committee yesterday.

Dickinson told MPs that the pandemic had accelerated the shift of retail sales further online and warned that the future of many stores could hang on changes to the moratorium and business rates.

“We’ve seen a closer relationship between physical and digital, but we’ve lost around 5,000 shops over 2020,” she said.

“Whether we lose more than we need to will depend on the moratorium decision, giving space to businesses which need to negotiate with landlords, and the business rates review.”

Quarterly rent day for retailers and other high street firms is just two weeks away and the current moratorium on unpaid rent is due to come to an end at the end of the month, which could prove to be decisive for many retail stores struggling to recover from months of lockdowns.

Retailers will also resume paying business rates at the end of June and Dickinson renewed her calls for a fundamental review of the system, which places a disproportionate burden on businesses with a high street presence.

"Many factors will impact on the scale of retail job losses as a result of the pandemic – including what happens to the debt enforcement moratorium and the outcome of the business rates fundamental review, due this autumn," Dickinson said.

While retail footfall is continuing to recover as lockdown restrictions are lifted, Dickinson pointed out that is still around 30% down on the same period in 2019 with large town and city centres the worst affected.

She was joined in her calls for more support by leaders from the travel and hospitality industries.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality warned MPs: “You are going to have long Covid for the economy if you are not very careful.

“We currently have £2.5 billion in historic rent debt which is going to fall in one hit on 1 July, when the moratoriums end, so we urgently need those extending.

“We are two weeks away from the next quarter rent day, so we need that extended as a matter of urgency and we need the Government to work with us, lenders, landlords, to find a solution to this rent debt, so we don’t start tripping up businesses and causing insolvencies when we should be coming out of this crisis.”

Meanwhile Mark Tanzer, chief executive of travel trade body Abta, told MPs at the committee that Government support had not been “adequate” for the impact of the pandemic on the UK travel sector.

He said: “The support measures that have been available have been appreciated, but at the margin and not adequate for the scale of the challenge the travel industry has faced and is facing. The summer season counts for two-thirds, we are in it, and no-one is travelling.

“The Government needs to recognise that the travel sector is in a class of its own regarding the pain it’s suffered really. And if we don’t have support through these critical weeks, I really do fear that we will be losing a generation of travel companies if we don’t act and get financial support to them now.”

He added that the decision to remove Portugal from the so-called "Green List" as of 4am yesterday had been a "real blow" to the sector.