Debenhams

Council leader Rob Stewart said:

“These are unprecedented times around the UK – they are especially difficult for everyone in the retail and hospitality sectors. Our heart goes out to them all and, working with the Welsh Government, we will continue to do all we can to support individuals and businesses through this incredibly difficult time.

“We work closely with Debenhams, their Swansea store has traded well and we’re talking to our contacts there to fully understand the situation in relation to our local store. We will seek talks with any new owners of Debenhams and the Arcadia Group should they emerge.

“The pandemic is accelerating the changes being brought about by online shopping – it presents massive challenges to high streets around the UK. It has also reinforced the importance of us continuing with our £1bn regeneration programme to create a new Swansea city centre for people to work, live, shop and enjoy. If we were not already well on that journey with major investment and regeneration underway across Swansea, we would be looking at a very uncertain future.

“It was encouraging that research published this week predicted that Swansea will lead the jobs recovery in Wales next year. The new UK Powerhouse report by law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), showed that the city will be in the top 10 of UK cities for employment, with 8.1% year-on-year growth projected by the end of 2021.

“Our £135m Copr Bay phase one is on schedule to open next year and will give us a major boost in attracting new retail, hospitality and leisure businesses to Swansea including local and Welsh food and drink businesses who may want to be a part of that.

“It will be a catalyst for the major transformation of other key city centre sites – and top quality global developers are have already submitted bids to work with us.”