More than 17,000 stores are set to close this year as retailers face higher costs following Labour’s first fiscal Budget.
The Centre for Retail Research warned “worse is yet to come” after it reported that 13,479 stores closed their doors for the final time in 2024, a 28% increase on 2023, The Telegraph reported.
It forecasts that store closures will rise 30% rise to 17,350 over the next 12 months.
Of the closures, around 14,660 are expected to be independent retailers – nearly double the 7,793 that closed last year.
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Centre for Retail Research’s Joshua Bamfield said: “Whilst the results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting – with worse set to come in 2025.”
According the British Retail Consortium, the retail sector is facing an additional £70bn added to its tax bill through changes to National Insurance, business rates, National Living Wage increase and new levies on packaging come April 1.
Real estate firm Altus Group forecast the rates bill for the average shop will more than double from £3,589 to £8,613 for the new year.
A spokesman for the Treasury told The Telegraph: “We delivered a once-in-a-parliament Budget to wipe the slate clean and deliver the stability businesses so desperately need.
“Without our action, business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure would have ended in April this year.
“Instead, we are extending 40% relief for 250,000 properties and introducing a new permanently lower business rate in 2026, while more than half of employers will either see a cut or no change in their National Insurance bills.”
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