BRC slams nightmare before Christmas as coronavirus lockdown looms large

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has hit out at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement of a month-long national coronavirus lockdown, starting on Thursday.

Pubs, restaurants, gyms, non-essential shops and places of worship will close, but schools, colleges and universities can stay open. People are being told to stay at home unless they have a specific reason to leave, such as work and education.

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Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at the BRC, says: “Retail faces a nightmare before Christmas as the government proposes to close thousands of retail premises under this new national lockdown, denying customers access to many of their favourites shops and brands.”

“It will cause untold damage to the high street in the run up to Christmas, cost countless jobs, and permanently set back the recovery of the wider economy, with only a minimal effect on the transmission of the virus.”

Dickinson flags up a recent Sage paper which reported that closing non-essential retail would have minimal impact on the transmission of Covid. “This is thanks to the hundreds of millions of pounds retailers have spent making their stores Covid-secure and safe for customers and colleagues,” she comments.

She adds: “The announced closure will have a significant economic impact on the viability of thousands of shops and hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. The previous lockdown cost non-essential shops £1.6 billion a week in lost sales; now that we are entering the alll important Christmas shopping period, these losses are certain to be much bigger.”

“We have no doubt that retailers will comply with the rules and play their part to ensure the British public can remain safe and have access to the goods they need. Nonetheless, Government must also play its part, providing support to businesses that will be forced to close, otherwise the consequences for local retail will be dire,” Dickinson concludes.