New research reveals over 5,000 workers could lose their jobs in Bedford due to Covid lockdown

New research by two professors have revealed the impact the lockdown is having on towns and cities across the UK - and it makes for grim reading.

According to Professor Marc Cowling, University of Derby, and Professor Ross Brown, University of St Andrews, 603 businesses in Bedford are at immediate risk of failing as they run out of cash.

And this scale of business failures in Bedford would put 5,083 workers into unemployment with little chance of finding a new job.

Professor Cowling said: "The immediate consequences of the Covid-19 crisis on the economies of our cities and towns will be extremely severe at a time when people are already struggling to make ends meet and pay their bills."

Professor Brown added: "Whilst the predicted job losses are spread widely across the UK, it is very apparent that the cities and towns outside of the wealthy South East of England will suffer more from business failure. This fact alone means that the levelling-up agenda just got a lot harder."