Lucy Powell – 2021 Comments on Debenhams

The comments made by Lucy Powell, the Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers, on 25 January 2021.

Seeing stores vanish from high streets across Britain will be a real blow to communities across our country, and it will be absolutely devastating for the 25,000 people who face losing their job. The pandemic has accelerated changes to the way we shop, yet the government continues to disadvantage bricks and mortar businesses against online companies.

The support on offer for struggling businesses has been a series of sticking plasters. Unless the Government puts in place a long-term plan to help high street businesses survive this crisis and recover on the other side, we will see more well-loved high street names vanishing, and many more jobs lost.