Fashion chain Quiz was last night on the brink of collapse – taking the number of High Street jobs put at risk in the last week to over 10,000.
The party-dress retailer is set to call in administrators, creating questions over the fate of its 1,500 employees and 60 stores.
The warning comes just days after WH Smith announced plans to sell its High Street business, which employs 5,000 people, and grocers Sainsbury’s and Morrisons said they would axe 3,000 and 200 roles.
Cookware seller Lakeland was also put up for sale, putting 1,000 jobs at risk.
The threat to livelihoods comes as the High Street faces a barrage of cost rises following the Budget.
A raft of higher costs including the National Insurance Contributions paid by employers (NICs), the National Minimum Wage and a new workers’ rights package, will heap extra pressure on firms from April.
Businesses will also be clobbered with higher business rates bills after Labour failed to reform the punitive levy.
Fast-fashion brand Quiz is on the brink of falling into administration
Sainsbury’s is expected to slash 3,000 jobs
The scale of jobs on the line casts a shadow over Ms Reeves’s plans to relaunch her economic growth agenda.
In further blow, pub bosses urged her to cancel ‘devastating’ tax hikes as they warned the plans have already caused job losses, cancelled investment and venue closures.
In an eleventh-hour plea, the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) warned that the NICs and business rate increases would be ‘devastating’ for independent pubs.
Higher bills could leave eight in ten pubs unprofitable, the group, which represents 13,000 locals, said.
This threatens to push many over the edge and lots of operators will have to take ‘drastic action’ such as job cuts and putting up prices, added the BII’s chief executive Steve Alton.
WH Smith announced plans to sell its High Street business, which employs 5,000 people
Anthony Pender, who runs the Somers Town Coffee House in Sir Keir Starmer’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency, says the rises ‘penalise small businesses employing local people and that elevate and provide services for local communities.’
He added: ‘We have survived a major fire, Covid, the credit crunch, the cost of living crisis and austerity. It is a resilient, successful business, and the Chancellor’s Budget has put that and a team of 30-plus at risk.’
In April, the rate of national insurance paid by employers will increase by 1.2 percentage points to 15 per cent, while the eligibility will drop from earnings of £15,000 to £9,000.
And Ms Reeves also slashed rates relief from 75 per cent to 40 per cent with a cap of £110,000, meaning that smaller firms in particular will pay significantly more.
