Retail landlords call for clarity on non-essential stores reopening after December 2

Retail landlords have called for clarity about whether scores of shops will be able to reopen from the second lockdown next month.

In a letter to business secretary Alok Sharma, Vivienne King, chief executive of Revo, which represents retailers and retail property owners, said: “The latest lockdown has hit the sector very hard, coming on the back of the billions in income losses that have already had to be absorbed this year, but also in the vital November-December Christmas trading period.”

Retailers deemed non-essential had to close earlier this month as part of Government efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus. The lockdown is due to end on December 2. 

King said reopening on December 3 may still allow the sector to “claw back some of the loss of November trading, yet there is no clear public assurance from Government that this national lockdown will end for non-essential retail, at that point”.

The boss urged Sharma to provide clarity now that non-essential retail will reopen on 3 December “or at least, the criteria that will be applied to determine whether it can reopen then”.

Many high street chains have invested heavily to make sites ‘Covid-secure’, with PPE for staff and social distancing measures in place.