NEWS SPECIAL
COVID-19 UPDATE FOR ALL THE LATEST CORONAVIRUS NEWS, HEAD TO WWW.SLRMAG.CO.UK/CATEGORY/NEWS/
UNIVERSAL CREDIT CALLS Over half of workers on Universal Credit are
SIX YEARS OF GROWTH ‘WIPED OUT’ BY PANDEMIC THE LATEST BRC ECONOMIC BRIEFING REPORT STATES THAT THE
struggling to pay bills,
PANDEMIC HAS DELIVERED AN “EXTRAORDINARY SHOCK” TO THE
leading shopworkers’ trade
UK ECONOMY, WIPING OUT SIX YEARS’ GROWTH IN 2020 ALONE.
union Usdaw to call on the Chancellor to retain the £20 uplift. Usdaw has released survey results showing that 57% of workers on Universal Credit are struggling to pay their gas and electric bills and 80% said they would be worried or very worried if the Government removed the £20 weekly uplift.
BOOTS JOBS RISK High street pharmacy Boots has announced a further restructure of its head office in Beeston, Nottinghamshire. The
The latest BRC Economic Briefing Report for February 2021 from BRC Retail Insight and Analytics has shown that the Covid-19 pandemic has delivered an “extraordinary shock to the UK economy”. In 2020 alone, the effects wiped out six years of consecutive growth. In Q4 last year, GDP rose by 1.0%, down from 16.1% in Q3. In December, it grew by 1.2%, following November when it contracted by 2.3%. Consumer spend recovery is expected to be the driver of economic rebound in 2021, but to what extent that will happen is unclear. The Bank of England estimates that between March
and November, excess savings reached £125bn, or around 8% of annual household income, significantly above historical levels. However, it is mostly retired households and households in the top 40% of the income distribution that have experienced marked increases in savings. The UK’s labour market is running well below any measure of full employment. 800,000 jobs have been lost since the March 2020 lockdown. Employment fell to 75% in December from 76.6% in February, unemployment rose to 5.1% from 4% in February, and inactivity is rising.
move puts 300 jobs at risk.
SPAR NHS BOOST Scottish Rugby, a long-term partner of healthy hydration drinks company iPRO, has teamed up with Spar Scotland to donate iPRO Hydrate drinks to NHS Tayside to keep staff healthy and boost morale. Over 6,000 iPRO drinks will be on hand to help NHS staff over the coming weeks, as key workers continue the fight against the pandemic.
UK ONLINE SHOPPERS ‘OUTSPEND THE WORLD’ New research shows that the average Brit spent £3,379 online last year – a world-beating figure – suggesting that the re-opening of non-essential stores on 12 April may come too late to save the High Street. The study was completed on behalf of home delivery specialist ParcelHero and shows that UK consumers spent more online than consumers in any other country, and significantly ahead of America’s £2,753 average. ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer
8 I SLRMAG.CO.UK / ISSUE 45 / WEDNESDAY 3RD MARCH 2021
Research, David Jinks, says: “Our figures are supported by research from payment machine comparison site Merchant Machine, which found that, although China and the USA have a higher overall online spend, those nations have a far higher population than the UK. Merchant Machine found China spends £954.9bn and the USA £621.6bn, compared to the UK’s £174.3bn. Both England and Scotland are set to reopen non-essential stores in April.
