COVID-19

The Treasury is to extend the current ban on evictions for unpaid commercial rent past the end of this month and into 2022, after delaying the easing of further Covid restrictions.

The Government has confirmed it will not heed calls from industry to further extend furlough and other financial support as the Prime Minister announced a delay to his original road map out of restrictions.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to announce the delay of easing COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, seeing the current rules remain in place for up to a further four weeks after the planned 21 June unlocking.

Harrods is to extend its opening hours on Fridays and Saturdays, starting 18 June 2021, with the view of extending the hours further once the UK is closer to achieving normality.

London landlord Shaftesbury has today revealed its COVID Community Fund, which was established in April 2020, has provided £510,000 of support.

N Brown Group, owners of Simply Be and Jacamo, has reported revenues decreased by 13% (£108.7 million) to £729 million in the 52 weeks to 27 February 2021, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business is revealed.

Marks & Spencer has announced the reopening of fitting rooms across all locations, following a successful trial period at its Oxford Street flagship store.

Indoor hospitality reopens in England, Wales and Scotland today (with certain restrictions in place), while non-essential retail will reopen across Ireland, in what should provide a much-needed footfall boost to shopping destinations.

Campaign group Save The Street is urging the Government to take action now to encourage consumers to support their local shops saying it will be too late for many independent retail businesses to be saved as footfall continues to lag way behind pre-pandemic levels.

As Sadiq Khan formally signed in for a second term as Mayor of London this morning on stage at London's Shakespeare's Globe, he has announced plans for the biggest domestic tourism campaign the capital has ever seen to help London’s economy get back on its feet as COVID-19 restrictions are eased.

Customer-obsessed innovator Hazel Morton leads the UK marketing team at Critizr, the business behind Europe’s leading Customer Interaction Management platform. Named in CX Network’s 30

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which owns Westfield London and Westfield Stratford, has reported a proportionate turnover for Q1 of £410.9 million, a 30.4% reduction compared to the same three month period in 2020, reflecting the impact of the prolonged COVID-19 restrictions.

High street retailer French Connection saw its group revenue fall by 40.4% for the financial year ending 31 January 2021, as COVID-19 imposed store closures heavily impacted trading.

The high street stores may now be open but new research suggests that the online retail boom will continue in the post-pandemic landscape.

Footfall in the West End of London hit 54% of the usual April number following the reopening of non-essential retail a week ago.

Northern Ireland has set out the next steps for its exit from lockdown with non-essential retail reopening from 30 April and beauty services and hairdressers from 23 April.

Violence and abuse towards shop workers is “endemic” and has worsened since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, MPs have heard.

Footfall across all UK retail destinations jumped by +155% yesterday, Monday 12 April, compared to Monday last week, and by +225.2% in shopping centres, as the government’s lockdown restrictions were eased and non-essential retail reopened.

London's most high profile shopping destination welcomed back shoppers for the first time since before Christmas today as the lockdown across England began to lift. Despite cold weather and, in some places snow, at the start of the day, shoppers flocked to the street's best known stores such as Primark, Zara, JD Sports, Nike and Selfridges.

The much talked about pent-up demand was evident this morning as shoppers flocked to the reopened shops – with footfall up to 10am across all UK destinations up +218.2% week on week.