The branch of Debenhams in Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre will not reopen after lockdown, the department store giant has confirmed.

The giant store has been part of the centre for 16 years, since it opened in 2003. Four other branches have also had their closure confirmed today which will see a total loss of up to 1,400 jobs.

All the affected sites are in shopping centres owned by property developer Hammerson, who recently staged a bid to buy the Merry Hill shopping centre from Intu. Bosses have acknowledged that more sites could also be lost, with the store at The Fort shopping centre amongst earlier casualties. It's understood that the Dudley brach of Debenhams is unaffected at the moment.

The chain was founded in the eighteenth century as a single store in London and has now grown to 178 locations across the UK and Denmark.

However, it has been blighted by financial problems in recent months and fell into administration in April, exactly one year after having entered administration previously.