U.K., April 9 -- UK towns and cities up and down the country are looking how to 'future proof' their high streets amid the ongoing supremacy of online shopping and steep drop in revenues during the pandemic.
The British Retail Consortium reports non-food retail stores will have lost £30bn in foregone sales over the three lockdowns. The Centre for Retail Research states 188,685 retail jobs were lost between March 23 2020 and March 31 this year, and there have been 15,153 store closures.
High streets, already suffering pre-COVID with the rise in online shopping, now face unprecedented pressures to survive.
Now the retail and construction sectors are fighting back. England's retailers make their long-awaited reopening on Monday and no...