Name: Coronavirus: retail sales suffer biggest fall since records began - BBC News
Uploaded: 2020-07-02T17:45:08.000Z
Duration: 6 min 52 s
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retail sales have suffered the biggest drop since records began falling by more than 5% last month.

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The figures from the Office for National Statistics show that clothing has been particularly hard hit.

The one sector that is booming, not surprisingly, is food and alcohol are business editor Simon Jack reports.

There was nothing spiffy about today's figures from the high street owners of the self styled Happiness Store, so commercial misery as retail sales dropped their fastest rate since records began 34 years ago.

In their two weeks in the run up to lock down, we were down 24% on last year on, then obsolete.

We had nothing coming in as a result, the shopping closed, whether you have one store or 100 and have an online presence like this maker of mother and baby clothes, there's been no escaping the deadly economic consequences of a virus that has emptied our high streets.

The reality is overnight we lost all our retail sales on our retail overheads.

Yes, of course, we've had some help from the government.

We're negotiating with our landlords, but that's not the full picture.

In retail, we have shops which have become sarcophagus is for stock, which is time sensitive.

The longer the lock down goes on, the greater the economic damage.

This is one of the UK busiest shopping venues.

Right now it is the scene of an unfolding economic disaster.

Today is the first time that statistics have caught up with what is blindingly obvious to see and remember these numbers only captured two weeks off the lock down period.

Just a foretaste of the grim news ahead that he was further pressure on the government supply even more assistance to struggling businesses.

The government has already offered an 80% guarantee to those who lend money to virus hit businesses.

It's been under pressure to increase that.

I'm not persuaded that moving to a 100% guarantee is there the right thing to do?

The government is considering fully backing loans of up to £25,000 for the smallest businesses, a good move, say business groups, although many of them don't want to take all knows they haven't taken or loans before.

They know they just need to be able to pay their bills to cover their overheads.

Many of them have furloughed workers, but of other bills to pay.

It will keep them afloat on every job that is saying now will enable our economy to recover more quickly In the future, Debenhams has said it will permanently close its major stores and whales of the government.

There doesn't reverse the decision to withhold business rates relief for bigger firms in better news, being Que has reopened half its doors.

But we are a very, very long way from business as usual.

Simon Jack Cassini's The Metropolitan Police says it has made more than 4000 arrests for domestic abuse in recent weeks.

The force, which is the country's largest, says phone calls reporting domestic abuse have risen by 1/3.

Police around the UK and domestic abuse charities have urged victims to seek help during the lock down.

The technology firm Dyson says theme medical ventilator it has been developing to help treat patients with covert 19 is no longer required in the UK Dyson says it had received an order for 10,000 ventilators last month on which has yet to be approved by regulators.

But the government has now said it services are no longer required.

3/4 of a 1,000,000 people applied to become NHS volunteer responders when the scheme opened a month ago.

Since then, 600,000 have been accepted, but so far only 50,000 tasks have been carried out.

Its caused frustration among would be volunteers as well as confusion among some vulnerable people who want access to the service.

Now organizers have apologized for the delays and opened a help line where people can register for support.

Fact left, and I have volunteered for the role off check in and chat.

Rebecca applied to be an NHS volunteer four weeks ago.

It was a fortnight before she was approved, and as of now she's still to receive a single request to help someone in need.

Newmark itself is on duty since that many in the evenings and weekends on nothing like I've not had anything, so there's a total of 75 hours I've been online ready to volunteer and either make or take calls.

She feels doubly frustrated on behalf of her parents, who don't live near her.

Her father, Peter, has a lung disease and is entitled to help from the scheme, but they didn't know how to get it.

When shielding laughter actually tells you to get friends or family to collect your prescriptions, so and that's from the government, do you?

You personally haven't phoned up, will try to access the NHS scheme, wasn't aware of it.

To be honest, could you do with extra help?

I think we're all right now because the community's kicked in going from door to door.

Local schemes like this one in Liverpool were quick to get going, many communities helping to look after themselves.

We are doing a lot of sort of courtesy calls to keep you company things that we've started to deliver hot meals, really anything that we can put our mind to because, you know, as you say, the experience within our communities, it's quite significant if you organize that it could be quite a powerful thing.

There's a whole range of organisations offering help, some of which overlap local councils of delivering government food boxes, charities and community groups have sprung into action on the NHS.

Volunteers can help with jobs like delivering groceries and medicine amongst other things.

Not everybody who's eligible for the help knows where to go for it.

That may be why there are many more NHS volunteers than jobs for them to do.

So far, the organizer's have now opened a hotline to make it easier for vulnerable people to request help.

Their volunteers have frustrated that they're not being used.

The numbers of tasks being done on huge is this working.

The key is that we get everybody the opportunity to get themselves into the system.

Anybody who feels that they are at risk or vulnerable, who feels that they can get support from a shopping role or prescription pick hearts or maybe a call, please to give us a ring you confined.

A number ruled country service website on will be able to get used in support.

Every project, big and small, has a part to play.

 The work of volunteers is proving not just valuable but vital during this crisis. 