Good morning.
Arcadia has collapsed(£) into administration(£), with 444 leased stores at risk(£) and Deloitte appointed as administrator.
The Times (£) says the fall of Arcadia will unleash a “wave of misery” across the retail industry, just as it prepares to reopen.
And as The FT (£) takes a closer look at the rise and fall of Philip Green’s retail empire, it adds that the pandemic is merely hastening the inevitable(£). The Guardian, meanwhile, has a handy timeline.
JD Sports posted the biggest gain in the FTSE 100 today, as news of Arcadia’s fall raised doubts about JD’s rescue of Debenhams.
But HMRC(£) missed out by a matter of hours from becoming a key creditor, as a rule change came too late.
Robert Jenrick(£) has said that shops will be allowed to trade around the clock as the high street attempts to recoup losses in the run-up to Christmas.
A dozen sectors have been highlighted as facing significant job losses and revenue cuts, according to a secret government dossier(£).
The prime minister is expected to announce that bars and pubs not able to reopen – because they don’t serve “substantial meals” – will be given additional grants(£).
But the boss of Mitchells & Butlers has said that many of its London sites will still be unviable(£) after the second lockdown ends.
And despite the PM’s pub promises, he still faces a humiliating revolt(£) over his toughened up tiers today as Tories rebel(£) and Labour abstains.
Landlords have collected 75% of rents owed for the September quarter, with offices nearly bouncing back to pre-Covid levels.
Caffe Nero, meanwhile, will press ahead with its CVA after rejecting a surprise takeover bid from the billionaire Issa brothers. The Issas planned to pay rent arrears(£) in full. Nero is offering 30%.
Olympia will return to hosting live music as AEG is announced as one of the first tenants(£) of the £1.3bn redevelopment. But the 4,400-capacity venue won’t try to recapture the glory of 1967 when Olympia hosted Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Who in one night. Instead it will be for “the guys who are a step down from that”, which apparently means James Blunt.
Mortgage approvals(£) have risen to their highest levels in 13 years(£), 51% higher than the same time last year.
Homes in Fife will be the first in the world to be powered by pure hydrogen(£).
Meanwhile, a senior manager at a firm whose flammable insulation was fitted on Grenfell Tower said that those concerned with its safety could “go f#ck themselves”(£).
Boodles has donated a £2,800 diamond pendant to Property Race Day’s Foundation 500 prize draw, as the charity races past the halfway marker to its £100,000 target.
And finally, ‘wet’ pubs may have been thrown a lifeline by the environment secretary. Speaking to LBC yesterday(£) George Eustice said: “I think a Scotch egg probably would count as a substantial meal if there were table service”. The loose application of the term “substantial meal” will mean that pubs would be able to serve booze as long as punters tuck in to a ‘scegg’ or nargis kebab. Apparently, a ‘meal’ is anything you can “eat with a knife and fork”, so expect some pubs to hand out eating irons with bags of peanuts. But what is more concerning is that a scotch egg is considered by Eustice to be ‘substantial’. Is the government throwing a lifeline to boozers? Or sending the rest of us a warning of what to expect in the ‘new normal’?
