CEO of British Retail Consortium Helen Dickinson Speaks to T&G on Self-Isolation and the Freedom Day

The Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, Helen Dickinson, has told Times Radio the retail sector is facing "critical impacts" if there isn't an imminent reduction in the number of people being forced to isolate due to the NHS test and trace app.

Speaking to Tom Newton Dunn and Daisy McAndrew on T&G on Sunday she said:

Certainly, from a retail point of view we're seeing the impact in distribution centres up and down the country...with late deliveries and not everything necessarily arriving on time that can lead to increased food waste in the supply chain, which is obviously really bad.

There is a big red flag being raised because there is a huge amount of concern on the trajectory that we are currently on. But something's got to give because otherwise we will see some more critical impacts over the coming days and weeks.

I'm talking about impacts on us all as members of the public, in terms of restrictions, in what might be available in the shops, or the number of hours that those shops might be open, and there will be a knock on impact for those businesses. Because if, for example, the food waste goes up significantly, then that is a cost to the business and not just a cost to the business, but also an environmental waste that we shouldn't be seeing at this time. So there is both an economic impact and a member of the public impact that we could see, unless something changes over the coming days.

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