Centrica is to cut a further 5,000 jobs as the lossmaking energy supplier accelerates cost cuts after the coronavirus crisis added to several difficult years marred by mass redundancies, profit warnings and dividend cuts, the Financial Times reported. Half of the job cuts announced on Thursday will come from leadership, management and corporate roles as Chris O’Shea, who took over from Iain Conn as chief executive in March, seeks to simplify the energy group behind the British Gas brand. The latest redundancies add to 12,500 jobs slashed since 2015 in an effort to save £2bn by 2022.

British fashion retailer Quiz said on Wednesday it would place its stores unit into administration and then buy the business back so it can try to renegotiate better rental terms, Reuters reported. Bricks and mortar retail in the United Kingdom was facing a major structural challenge prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic with the economics of operating stores on traditional leases proving increasingly difficult.

Casual dining company The Restaurant Group is to shut 125 of its underperforming restaurants in a significant cut to the size of its estate, the Financial Times reported. The closure will largely impact its Frankie & Benny’s chain, and comes as the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns in the UK have deepened the crisis in the mid-market restaurant sector, forcing companies to reduce their cost base and downsize operations.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is being asked by members of the ruling Conservative Party to take his time to pay off the record debt the country is racking up as it tries to weather the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. By that, they mean decades. With the economy on course for its deepest recession for at least a century, the government is now paying the wages of more than 10 million workers to stave off mass unemployment.

British fashion retailers Monsoon and Accessorize will close 35 stores, make 545 staff redundant and seek rent cuts for remaining shops as part of a restructuring led by its founder to survive the COVID-19 crisis, Reuters reported. Administrators from business advisory firm FRP were appointed late on Tuesday and immediately sold the companies’ business and assets to Adena Brands, a company ultimately controlled by Peter Simon, who owned and founded Monsoon in 1973. The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent national lockdown had made the business unviable.

British businesses have borrowed nearly 35 billion pounds under three emergency credit programmes for companies hit by the coronavirus crisis with demand strongest for a 100% state-backed scheme for the smallest firms, Reuters reported. After a recent warning by lenders that some of the borrowing might prove unsustainable for companies hit by the COVID lockdown, the Treasury said total lending under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) rose to 23.8 billion pounds by June 7 from 21.3 billion pounds by May 31. That represented a slightly smaller increase than in the previous week.

TheCityUK — a collection of the Square Mile’s titans — calculates the weight of unsustainable debt on UK company balance sheets is above £107bn and it could turn toxic unless neutralised, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Almost in the same breath, Anne Richards, head of Fidelity, warns that asset managers can’t, unlike the Titan Atlas, hold up the sky and recapitalise the entire UK economy. Companies are queueing up to ease the strains on their balance sheets as a result of coronavirus and lockdown.

Intu shopping centre in Milton Keynes could begin an insolvency process by the end of the month as debts have worsened during the Covid-19 crisis, it has been revealed, the MK Citizen reported. The shopping giants, who also owns the Trafford Centre and Lakeside, have put administrators on standby, Sky News has reported. All the centres are said to be in jeopardy unless the company can strike a deal with lenders over the next couple of weeks. Intu Properties is at a critical phase in negotiations and has lined up KPMG to act as administrators if the talks fail, says Sky News.

Housebuilders in the UK are collapsing at an accelerating rate, threatening the much-needed supply of new homes, the Financial Times reported. Last year 368 companies in the sector filed for insolvency, according to data obtained from The Insolvency Service under the Freedom of Information Act. That compares with 207 in 2016, with the number rising each year since. The builders filing for insolvency were overwhelmingly small and medium sized enterprises, according to accountants Price Bailey, which obtained the data.

Businesses centring on travel and hospitality have endured a nightmare start to 2020. With the global outbreak of coronavirus, and the international lock-down ushered in to slow its spread, every aspect of the leisure sector has been battered by Covid-19-related headwinds, Consultancy.uk reported. In the airline segment for example, 700 of Lufthansa’s fleet of 760 planes have been grounded amid the coronavirus lock-down, with the number of passengers falling by 99%.