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Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

In another example of retail gloom, Debenhams is to permanently close four more stores with the loss of 239 jobs after failing to reach agreements with landlords.

It is understood that the stores in Swindon, Kidderminster, Borehamwood and Southampton, which were closed last month under the government’s coronavirus restrictions on non-essential retailers, will not reopen when the lockdown is eased.

The department store, which collapsed into administration last week, has reached agreement on 120 sites which are expected to continue to operate the future of 11 more hang in the balance.

It emerged last week that seven stores, including Salisbury, Westfield in west London, Leamington Spa, and South Shields, would permanently close after more than 20 closed in the previous few months.

On Friday Mark Gifford, the new chairman of Debenhams, wrote to the Welsh government saying that the group’s stores in Wales were also at risk because the regional government has decided not to offer a business rates holiday on sites with a rateable value over £500,000.

About half the group’s nine Welsh stores are thought to be in that bracket paying more than £2m a year total in rates between them.