River Island Orbital Shopping Centre safe
High street stores remain concerned after Labours budget
A spokesperson for River Island could not confirm whether Swindon's Orbital Shopping Park store was one of the stores that had been earmarked for rent reduction.
However, the company has confirmed that the town's shop is not one of the 33 stores selected to be closed by the end of the year.
The Orbital store will be one of the last remaining River Island stores in the area should the proposed closures go ahead as planned, with shops in Didcot, Oxford and Gloucester all set to be culled.
River Island's store in The Parade in the town centre closed down in January 2021, with the retailer opening their new store at the Orbital shortly after that in April.
Andrew Griffith: “We are here today because Labour broke its election promises. It has increased spending by £76 billion a year—eight times what was in its manifesto, and it is business that is paying the price. Business is not an abstraction; it is our pubs, our cafés, our restaurants and bars, our clothes shops and our newsagents. They are very real, and they are in very real danger. For many of them, the choices the Government have made will be terminal. The British Retail Consortium, the British Chambers of Commerce, UKHospitality, the Federation of Small Businesses and Family Business UK are all ringing the alarm bells, but this Government are not listening.”