UK’s excessive road disaster laid naked as 201k workers sacked with 17,349 retailers closed in 2024
New date from the Centre for Retail Research makes for grim reading and more bad news for the UK’s high street, with household names like Morphe, Monki and Ted Baker closing for good
The UK’s high street crisis has been laid bare – as more than 201,000 people lost their jobs in 2024. According to new data form the Centre for Retail Research, 2024 was one of the worst non-pandemic years on record for job losses and store closures.
Big names such as Morphe, Monki, Homebase, Ted Baker and Carpetright all disappeared for good, while other major names such as WHSmith, Boots and even supermarket giants Tesco and Sainsbury’s all closed branches over the 12 months.
And that coupled with the never-ending cost of loving crisis saw 201,953 members of staff lose their jobs, and a whopping 17,349 stores close for good.
This is nearly double last year’s figures, which saw 119,405 staff left jobless, with 10,494 stores closing.
A spokesman for the CRR called it a “permacrisis” and said that the UK is still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis, the growth of online shopping and, of course, the pandemic.
They said: “The financial crisis, the pandemic and 2022 inflation have all changed consumer behaviours. Challenges to living standards have led to more ‘shopping around’ and the resurrection of value. People never ever visited a disount store can be heard boasting about ‘Aldi prices’ and how good Primark is.
“Once this behaviour has been learned, then, even if there is a sustained boost in household incomes ever the next two-three years, consumers will continue using the new cheaper stores they have found, though perhaps not as much.
“And if a new crisis occurs, they have already learned what to do. Customer behaviour will quickly revert to what happened more slowly in 2022.”
The stats also show that 37 stores closed every day throughout last year.
The pain is expected to continue in 2025, with businesses set to face a hike to National Insurance Contributions, as well as a stagnating economy and a drop in confidence towards Chancellor Rachel Reeves from businesses around the country.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, said: “While the results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
It is being estimated that more than 17,000 stores will shut permanently this year.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.
