Why has shopping centre giant Intu gone bust – and what does it mean?

Ben Chu considers whether the latest retail casualty is a direct result of the pandemic – and what its collapse means for the future of shopping

Intu’s assets include 17 UK shopping centres including Lakeside in Essex (Reuters)

After months of lockdown, the UK’s shops have been given the green light by the government to reopen.

Yet Intu, the company that owns Manchester’s sprawling Trafford Centre, Essex’s Lakeside and Gateshead’s MetroCentre, announced on Friday that it has entered administration, putting thousands of jobs at risk.

So why has this retail leviathan collapsed?