Huge rise in UK shop closures with worse yet to come, warn analysts

About 11,000 chain stores closed in the first half of 2020, twice as many than 2019 as a wholeAlmost twice as many shops disappeared from UK high streets in the first half of 2020 than last year as a whole as the Covid-19 lockdowns hammered retail businesses.A total of 11,120 chain store outlets closed between January and June, while 5,119 opened. The 6,001 net store closures was a record high, compared with 3,509 in the same period last year, in another blow to the UK’s struggling retail