Britain's High Streets are at risk of becoming "wastelands" without regeneration, the Retail Sector Council…

Up to 15,000 more shops could disappear from Britain’s high streets by the end of 2025, a new report has warned. Statistics from the Local Data Company (LDC) showed that between 2018 and 2022, over 41,000 stores opened, and 79,000 stores closed, resulting in 37,700 fewer retail outlets across the UK over the five year period. If that trend continues, LDC is forecasting there will be between 8,000 and 15,000 fewer retail outlets by the end of 2025, leading The Retail Sector Council to warn that many towns and high streets face a “vicious spiral” because “the more stores that close, the more stores that are likely to close”. Richard Pennycook, the former CEO of the Co-op and co-chair of the council, told The Telegraph that more towns and cities were at risk of becoming “wastelands” because of a lack of incentives for retailers to invest in stores. “If we don’t incentivise regeneration, then these places are getting hollowed out,” he warned.

Senior figures at London City, Heathrow and Gatwick Airports have joined calls for the Government to ditch the so-called Tourist Tax and reinstate VAT free shopping for international tourists. All three have told City AM in exclusive interviews that the return of airside VAT-free shopping is critical for the sector if it is to finally shake-off the damage done by Covid lockdowns and other restrictions to keep pace with international competition. VAT free shopping for international tourists was removed in 2021 when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was Chancellor.

A deadline for offers to rescues stricken value retailer Wilko passed yesterday, without any news of whether any offers have been made. Potential buyers were thought to include rivals B&M European Value Retail, Poundland, The Range and Home Bargains.

Average rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 5.3% on average in the year to July, up from 5.2% in June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said yesterday. The latest data means rents are still at their highest level since comparable records began in 2016. There were especially big rises for tenants in Wales, where the average was up 6.5% in a year, and in Scotland where they were up 5.7%. In Northern Ireland, where the data is collected slightly differently, there was a 9.2% increase in the year to May, although this was lower than a previous peak. As well as rising mortgage interest rates, competition among renters is also to blame: there are 20 requests to view each available property according to recent figures commissioned by the BBC from property portal Rightmove, up from six in 2019. The ONS also said that average UK house prices increased by 1.7% annually, down from a revised 1.8% rise in May as the market cools as a result of the mortgage rate hikes.

Water company United Utilities has been fined £800,000 by the Environment Agency after illegally abstracting 22bn litres of water from a vital aquifer in Lancashire and causing damage that "will take years to recover". The FTSE 100 company took the water the Fylde aquifer during a period of dry weather in 2018 and caused enough damage to have negatively affected river flows, and led to a "significant decline in the water level available in the Fylde Aquifer," the agency said in a statement yesterday following the firm’s conviction at Warrington Magistrates Court. Aquifers are rock or sediment that hold groundwater collected in empty spaces underground to keep river flow at healthy levels for plant and fish life., and companies are under strict limits on the amount of water they can extract.

Building materials supplier Marshalls has cut around 250 jobs in the past six months because profits have been diminished by a slowdown in the property market. The paving stone specialist's adjusted profit before tax was down by 26% to £33.2m year-to-year for the six months to 30^th June. CEO Martyn Coffey said the job cuts were necessary after “challenging' market conditions 'led to a material reduction in volumes across all three of our reporting segments”.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is creating 300 jobs in the West Midlands and opening a new £130m body shop at its Solihull plant to support a 30% increase in Range Rover production and develop next generation electric models.  Britain's biggest carmaker is recruiting around 100 maintenance technicians at the Solihull plant, and around 200 test engineers who will be based at its Gaydon Engineering Centre and Whitley Powertrain facility to support the development of JLR's next generation EVs as part of a £15 billion investment programme.

BAE Systems is to buy US spacecraft manufacturer Ball Corporation’s aerospace arm in a $5.55bn (£4.36bn) deal. The FTSE 100 British defence giant says the acquisition will “strengthen” its position as a global provider of space systems and defence technologies and lead to a “substantial increase” in US revenue.

EY is to cut around 150 jobs in its near 2,300 financial services consulting team, and has warned staff they will face more meagre pay rises and smaller bonus pots this year as it battles with rising costs, according to reports in this morning’s Financial Times.

H&M is to investigate 20 alleged instances of abuse at its Myanmar clothes factories following a damning report from The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC). The BHRRC tracked at total of 156 cases of alleged worker abuses across numerous companies between February 2022 and February 2023, up from 56 in the previous year. The claims included reduced wages, unfair dismissal and harassment at work, affecting at least 82,000 workers, the British human rights body said. Pressure is now said to be mounting on H&M to follow in the footsteps of Zara owner Inditex, Primark and Marks & Spencer, who have already stopped using Myanmar suppliers.

Asian shares sank to nine-month lows overnight amid fears over China’s sluggish economic recovery. US finance company MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid to 495.03, its lowest since 28^th November, before clawing back some of its losses to trade 0.49% lower at 500.43. The index is down about 8% for August and set for its worst monthly performance since September, the firm said. The pan-European STOXX 600 has also hit a fresh one-month low this morning, weighed down by luxury goods companies exposed to Chinese consumer demand. The FTSE 100 is continuing its demise this morning, having lost more than 300 points in the past week’s trade. It stands currently at around 7,327, down -0.40% since open today.

The new Barbie movie has become the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film in US cinema history, beating Batman: The Dark Knight’s record. The Dark Knight previously held the record with $536m (£420.5m) in takings at the US domestic box office, but now Barbie has surpassed that record with $537.5m (£421.7m). Globally, Barbie has taken over $1bn, making it the second highest-grossing movie the studio has ever made, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Only a handful of films to have taken $1 billion worldwide at the box office. There are 53 in total and they include The Dark Knight, the first Harry Potter movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Toy Story 3, Joker and Jurassic Park, City AM says.

And finally….is this a case of #GoWokeGoBroke? US retail giant Target saw sales fall in-store and online for the first time in six years, and admitted a backlash over its Pride Month merchandise was partly responsible. Sales dropped 5% in the April to June period compared with the same time last year following controversy over the firm's 2000 or so items in its LGBTQ Pride clothing range, which included t-shirts decorated with rainbows, "gender fluid" mugs and children's books titled "Pride 1,2,3" and "I'm not a girl". Other lines created in collaboration with transgender designer Erik Carnell's Abprallen label faced criticism for featuring images of pentagrams and horned skulls. There were calls for a boycott and some customers damaged in-store displays. CEO Brian Cornell said in the trading update that the firm planned to approach future partnerships with caution, while still celebrating "heritage moments". "As we navigate an ever-changing operating and social environment, we are applying what we learned," he said.