News of the extended lockdown has not been welcomed by business leaders.

Last month, the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) estimated that each week of lockdown meant non-essential stores missing out on £135m of lost sales.

Since then, garden centres and homeware shops have been compelled to close too, and the government has placed curbs on retailers’ click and collect services.

The SRC says today's extension is a further blow to non-food stores who have already borne a lot during the pandemic.

It said Scottish stores were set to miss out on almost £950m of lost revenues during the current lockdown period.

"The extended lockdown will serve to make it harder for some retailers to emerge from this crisis. Even when we do eventually emerge from enforced hibernation the stark reality is that shops will be unable to trade at capacity due to physical distancing restrictions and caps on the number of customers in stores. This means that April’s abrupt ‘reverse cliff edge’ - which is set to see a 100% re-instatement of business rates – is simply not sustainable.

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