Almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs this year after the collapse of major high street chains, according to data.

It is the highest since more than 200,000 jobs in the sector were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.

The figures, compiled by the Centre for Retail Research, show a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date – up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.

It said its latest analysis showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.

Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from the collapse of businesses, with 38 major retailers going into administration, including other household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, The Body Shop, and Carpetright.

The rest were through “rationalisation”, as part of cost-cutting programmes by large retailers or small independents choosing to close their stores for good, according to the centre.

Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, said: “The comparatively low figures for 2023 now look like an anomaly, a pause for breath by many retailers after lockdowns if you like.

“The problems of changed customer shopping habits, inflation, rising energy costs, rents and business rates have continued and forced many retailers to cut back even more strongly in 2024.”

Independent retailers, which are generally small businesses with between one and five stores, shed 58,616 jobs in total during the year.

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Experts said 2025 is expected to be another challenging year for high street firms, with an increase in national insurance contributions as well as a reduction in discounts for business rates – the property tax affecting high street firms.

The current 75% discount to business rates – due to end on 31 March 2025 – will be replaced by a less generous discount of 40%, with the maximum discount remaining at £110,000.

Alex Probyn, president of property tax at real estate adviser Altus Group, said: “The cut in the business rates discount from 1 April will disproportionately affect independent retailers who will see their bills rise on average by 140% adding an extra £5,024 for the average shop.”

Altus forecasts have predicted the change will save the Treasury money but cost the retail sector an extra £688m.

The British Retail Consortium has also predicted that an increase in employer national insurance contributions and a reduction in the threshold at which firms start paying will create a £2.3bn bill for the sector.

Professor Bamfield has predicted as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector in 2025.

“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020,” he added.

Manchester United Football Club is to cut the funding it provides to its charitable arm as part of a purge of costs being overseen by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, its newest billionaire shareholder.

Sky News has learnt that the Premier League club plans to inform the Manchester United Foundation that it intends to curb the benefits it provides – which totalled close to £1m last year – from 2025 onwards.

Sources close to the situation said a substantial element of the support given to the Foundation by the club would be axed, although Old Trafford insiders insisted on Sunday that it would still provide “significant” support to the charitable wing.

A decision is said to have been made by the club’s leadership to proceed with the cuts, with the Foundation expected to be informed about the scale of the reductions in the coming weeks.

In 2023, the club paid the MU Foundation nearly £175,000 for charity services, which include managing the distribution of signed merchandise to individuals raising funds for charitable causes.

Manchester United also provided gifts in kind amounting to £665,000 last year, which were understood to include use of the Old Trafford pitch and other facilities, alongside free club merchandise and the use of back-office services such as the club’s IT capabilities.

The MU Foundation works in local communities around Manchester and Salford to engage with underprivileged and marginalised people.

Its projects include Street Reds, which is targeted at 8- to 18-year-olds, and Primary Reds, which works in school classrooms with 5- to 11-year-olds.

It also organises hospital visits to support children with life-threatening illnesses.

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The disclosure about the latest target of cost-cutting by Sir Jim’s Ineos Sports group, which now owns close to a 29% stake of Manchester United, comes just a day after The Sun revealed that an association set up to facilitate relations between former players, would see its club funding axed.

A similar move has been made in relation to funding for the club’s disabled fans’ group, while hundreds of full-time staff have been made redundant in recent months and costs have been slashed across most areas of its operations.

People close to the club anticipate further cost-cutting measures being introduced as soon as next month.

One club source said it remained “proud of the work carried out by the Manchester United Foundation to increase opportunities for vulnerable young people across Greater Manchester”.

“All areas of club expenditure are being reviewed due to ongoing losses.

“However, significant support for the Foundation will continue.”

Sir Jim has injected $300m of his multibillion pound fortune into Manchester United, although it will need to raise substantially more than that to fund redevelopments to Old Trafford or a new stadium.

Last year, the club, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, lost more than £110m, with sizeable interest payments totalling tens of millions of pounds annually required to service its debt burden.

The men’s first team has seen an alarming run of results under Ruben Amorim, who was appointed to succeed Erik Ten Hag in the autumn.

United have lost three of their last four matches – the exception being a derby win away at Manchester City – and lie 14th in the Premier League table.

Mr Amorim has acknowledged that he could face the same fate as Mr Ten Hag unless results improve.

Dan Ashworth, who was brought in from Newcastle United FC as sporting director in the summer, left after just five months.

Responding to news of the plans, a spokesman for the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) said: “The prospect of cuts to the charitable Foundation are another depressing example of the wrong priorities at United, cutting back on support to the community it purports to serve.

“Financial sustainability is important but instead of further investment to show ambition and go for growth, the Club is counter-productively trying to cut its way out of its problems.

“It’s hard not to conclude that the negative atmosphere they’re breeding is feeding its way through to the equally depressing performances on the field.”

Manchester United declined to comment formally on the proposed cuts to the funding of its charitable arm.

Sir Keir Starmer has ordered Britain’s key watchdogs to remove barriers to growth in a bid to kickstart Britain’s sluggish economy.

Sky News has learnt that the prime minister wrote to more than ten regulators – including Ofgem, Ofwat, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority – on Christmas Eve to demand they submit a range of pro-growth initiatives to Downing Street by the middle of January.

One recipient of the letter, which was also signed by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said it was unambiguous in its direction to regulators to prioritise growth and investment.

Ofcom, the Environment Agency and healthcare regulators are also all understood to have been sent it.

It comes after a torrid first few months in office for the PM, who has been forced onto the back foot by a series of damaging sleaze rows and turbulent policymaking.

October’s budget, which involved pledges to raise taxes by tens of billions of pounds, triggered a bruising backlash from the private sector, with bosses in a string of sectors warning that it will fuel inflation and cause job losses and business closures.

One regulatory source said this weekend that the letter to watchdogs and a wider drive for regulatory reform emanating from Downing Street were the brainchild of Varun Chandra, the PM’s special adviser on business and investment.

Sir Keir’s letter is understood to have referred to a need for every government department and regulator to support growth, and called on each recipient to submit five ideas for delivering that mandate by 16 January.

The letter also urged regulators to identify how the government could remove barriers to economic growth and where regulatory objectives were either conflicting or confused.

Mr Chandra is said by government insiders to have ruffled feathers in Whitehall since his appointment shortly after Labour’s massive general election victory in July.

A former managing partner at Hakluyt, the strategic advisory firm, Mr Chandra has been “relentlessly” emphasising the urgency of transforming business sentiment to drive growth, according to one Whitehall source.

The insider added that the letter to watchdogs was expected to be the first step in a broader programme of supply-side reforms to be overseen by Downing Street during the coming months.

Most of Britain’s economic regulators already have a Growth Duty enshrined in their statute, having come into effect in March 2017 under the Deregulation Act of two years earlier.

The push for watchdogs to have greater regard for economic competitiveness has already triggered a series of flashpoints, most notably in the financial services industry, where ministers have clashed with FCA officials over a number of policy areas.

Sir Keir has already signalled his aim of removing red tape, telling the government’s flagship International Investment Summit in the autumn: “The key test for me on regulation is of course growth.

“We’ve got to look at regulation across the piece, and where it is needlessly holding back the investment we need to take our country forward.

“Where it is stopping us building the homes, the data centres, the warehouses, grid connectors, roads, trainlines, then mark my words – we will get rid of it.”

On Saturday, a government spokesman declined to comment on the contents of the letter to regulators but said: “Our Plan for Change will drive economic growth right across the country, putting more money in people’s pockets.

“Regulating for growth instead of just risk is essential to that mission, ensuring that regulation does not unnecessarily hold back investment and good jobs in the UK.”