The research by Studee found the true cost of Covid-19 for Glasgow .
Glasgow has suffered a loss of £120m as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Research from Studee, who studied the effects of Covid-19 on university towns and cities across the UK, found that such towns and cities have suffered a cumulative loss of £3.5bn, as students have moved away back home with families since the start of the first lockdown in March.
The findings show that cities and towns with student populations have suffered huge losses over the last six months since lockdown began, with Glasgow being the third worst city affected, losing approximately £20m a month.
The figures show Glasgow has lost £18.5m from food takeaways, who, despite being allowed to still be open, suffered these losses as a result of students moving away from the city. Students are typical buyers of fast food, and this sector saw a total loss of £418m across the UK during this period.
£23.6m has been lost as a result of less socialising in Glasgow. Many popular leisure venues were forced to close, with some now having not opened since March. Across the UK this loss is as high as £577m.
A further £17m has been lost on transport, as students and other members of the public have avoided public transport where students would normally take the bus, train or subway to travel to campus, or ride a taxi to and from a night out in the city centre. As much as £574m could have been lost across the UK as a whole, with London suffering a loss of £81m alone on transport.
£36.9m has been lost on groceries in Glasgow, and this is estimated to be as high as over £1bn across student towns in the UK.
Another £13.4m has been lost on clothes and shopping, as students have had little need to buy new clothes, and it is expected clothes shops have lost as much as £347m across the UK.
Laura Rettie, Vice President of Studee, stated: “It’s no wonder the government has been so keen to get students back to university, despite the fact mass movement of young people during a pandemic probably isn’t the wisest course of action. Students bring a huge amount of money into the areas they choose to study in – money many small towns simply can’t afford to lose.
“Students have recently been blamed for coronavirus outbreaks, but we shouldn’t be using students as scapegoats when it was the government who urged them to get back to campus, with no clear guidance about studying online instead. Sadly, for many university towns across the country, the economic pain is likely to be felt for many years to come.”
ONLINEA link to the findings can be found here.
