Lidl pays back £100m in business rates relief December 4, 2020 Budget supermarket Lidl has joined the Covid repayment train in announcing it will pay back millions in business rates relief it received at the start of the pandemic. In March, the supermarket sector along with other retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England, was granted a business rates holiday for 12 months. Lidl today said [...]
Pets at Home becomes latest retailer to return business rates relief December 4, 2020 Pets at Home has joined the Covid repayment train and joins some of the UK’s biggest retailers in handing back millions of pounds in business rates relief. In March, all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England were given a business rates holiday for 12 months. But after a bumper year of sales on the [...]
Rising private equity star on making it in the City as a woman in 2020 December 3, 2020 Diversity and equality are increasingly on the radar of City firms. Serious priorities or mere marketing spiel? City A.M.‘s Michiel Willems sat down with Sunaina Sinha Haldea, founder and CEO of Cebile Capital, a London-based placement agent and secondaries advisor in private equity and infrastructure. The Harvard graduate is also an angel investor and serves [...]
Collapsed Debenhams claimed £40.5m of taxpayer cash via furlough scheme December 3, 2020 Collapsed Debenhams claimed £40.5m of taxpayer cash via furlough scheme
Asda joins ranks of supermarkets set to return business rates relief December 3, 2020 Asda has joined the growing number of UK supermarkets to hand back business rates relief given by the government to help it through the coronavirus crisis. This afternoon the grocer confirmed that it would repay £340m in emergency support – the fifth supermarket to make such a pledge. Since Tesco first announced it would give [...]
Tesco CEO: Movement of product is the biggest Brexit issue December 3, 2020 The movement of products across borders is the biggest issue facing supermarkets because of Brexit, not food price inflation, the chief executive of Tesco has said. Speaking on Sky News today, CEO Ken Murphy said: “The biggest challenge we face really is the movement of product between borders, the movement of product between Great Britain [...]
Sainsbury’s to forgo business rates relief December 3, 2020 Sainsbury’s has decided to forgo the business rates relief on its stores granted by the government since March. Lockdown restrictions have remained in place for longer than originally expected and throughout the pandemic all Sainsbury’s stores have been deemed essential retail. Almost all have been open and trading strongly, with the exception of a small [...]
Lockdown batters UK footfall but retailers hope for Christmas boost December 3, 2020 Retail footfall plummeted in November amid the closure of non-essential shops, though the decline was less severe than the first lockdown earlier this year. Visitor numbers were down more than 51 per cent year on year last month as tighter Covid-19 restrictions took their toll on the high street. The decline was steeper than the [...]
Morrisons follows Tesco in returning Covid-19 emergency support December 2, 2020 Morrisons has followed rival Tesco in deciding to pay back the business rates relief it received to help weather the coronavirus pandemic. The supermarket chain will hand back £274m to the government, £230m of which relates to its 2020/2021 financial year. In March the government waived all retail business rates for the financial year in [...]
Central London footfall surges in Wild Wednesday shopping spree December 2, 2020 Footfall levels in central London surged today as shoppers and office workers returned to the capital after England’s second coronavirus lockdown came to an end. Central London reported a 91.1 per cent jump in visitors by 5pm, compared with the same day last week as the city entered Tier 2 coronavirus restrictions. Footfall remains down [...]