Scottish retailers warn job losses will

Accelerate

Around 13,000 jobs and turnover worth £3.48 billion were lost in the retail sector during the five years before the pandemic, industry experts have said.

The figures will worsen as the full impact of 2020 becomes clear, the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) says, accelerating existing trends of consumers moving their shopping online.

The trade body has published its 34-page manifesto ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections in May, calling for a national retail strategy to support the sector.

It also wants to see a moratorium on new policies which will affect retailers for a year after coronavirus is suppressed.

Analysing Scottish Government figures, the SRC said 13,000 retail jobs were lost between 2016 and 2018 while £3.48 billion in annual turnover was lost from the industry between 2014 and 2018.

SRC director David Lonsdale said: “This Holyrood election comes as the industry hits the very apex of the retail revolution.

“Covid has accelerated the existing trends in retail: including driving customers towards digital, weakened demand, and put retailers under unparalleled pressure.

“Last year saw the worst-ever retail sales figures, a six-year peak in shop vacancies and shopper footfall slump by a third; which comes off the back of three years which saw 13,000 retail jobs lost and a £3.48 billion reduction in turnover since 2014.

“Retail was already in a difficult position before 2020 and Covid, with ever high property and people costs combining with complex, intrusive and often contradictory policies exacerbating weak economic growth.”