Retail trade in Britain faces a tsunami of closure if the government does not extend the current debt collection moratorium. This forecast was made in the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents the interests of the industry.

Every seventh store in the country is already empty: outlets that did not sell “vital” goods were forced to close during the pandemic. The total lease debt reaches 2.9 billion pounds, the BRC calculates.

Two-thirds of retail representatives say that they are going to demand lease debts from them in court after July 1 – on this day the moratorium ends.