Almost 15% of North West shop premises are empty, the highest in the country. There are 4,600 vacant stores in the region and in the last decade the number of people visiting North West high streets has fallen by 22 % - higher than the national average. Last year 57,000 jobs were lost in the industry across the UK, many of them in the North West, and more redundancies have been announced this year.
 
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “2019 was the worst year for the retail sector since records began. In recent years we’ve lost household names like British Home Stores, Toys ‘R Us and Mothercare. At the same time, companies such as Debenhams, New Look and Marks and Spencer have been closing hundreds of stores.
 
“If any other industry was facing this level of upheaval, there would quite rightly be a public outcry and Government action, but that is not the case in retail. Shops and shopworkers are undervalued, but they are at the heart of our communities.
 
“Staff are the biggest asset for any high street retailer, so they must invest in the shopfloor workforce. Of course that means better pay, but it also means skills and training, job security, guaranteed hours and shift patterns that fit with people’s lives.
 
“We need to tackle the structural issues facing the high street: Business rates that penalise high street retailers; public transport that makes it difficult for people to access their town centres, and extortionate parking charges. All these issues need to be addressed to level the playing field between online and ‘bricks-and-mortar’ retailers.
 
“An industrial strategy for retail must be a priority and we must hold this Government to account for its continued failure to address the growing crisis on our high streets.”
 
Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 400,000 members. Membership has increased by more than one-third over the last couple of decades. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion