UK retail is bracing for a tough 2025 as 2024 ended with the news around 13,500 stores closed, a rise of 28% on 2023, according to Centre for Retail Research (CRR).

That meant the UK lost about 37 stores a day during 2024 in yet another brutal year for the high street, although the losses were below the levels seen each year between 2019 and 2022.

The CRR had already delivered the news that job losses in UK retail were almost 170,000 for the year after the collapse of major high street chains and the highest since more than 200,000 jobs in the sector were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the pandemic.

The group’s research director, Prof Joshua Bamfield, said: “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.”

He said the research group expected store closures to rise by the same factor again during 2025, to about 17,350, with approximately 14,660 coming from independent retailers.

Pressure on retailers, particularly independents, has been a long-running theme for the high street, although new challenges are emerging alongside the more persistent threats.

The commercial real estate firm Altus Group argued that the planned cut in the business rates discount from 75% to 40% in April, which was announced at the 2024 autumn budget, would make trading even tougher for retailers. It estimates that the average shop’s rates bill will rise from £3,589 to £8,613 for 2025-26.

“Despite Labour’s manifesto recognition of the undue burden business rates place on our high streets, that burden will be significantly increased,” said Altus’s president, Alex Probyn.

Of course, without trying to minimise the severity of the closure numbers, there’s no denying that in the fashion sector there are a few positive aspects to some closures. 

A number of chains have been consolidating stores and while they’ve been exiting smaller underperforming locations, they’ve also been opening bigger flagships with much wider product selections. These act as centres of excellence for the overall brand offer.