The owner of the Trafford Centre and Intu Lakeside said that it expects rents and service charges collected across its shopping centres to total just £310m this year, compared to £491.6m for the same period last year.

However, the landlord forecast that its liquidity would improve in 2021, when more normality returns to the sector. Intu had been struggling to adjust to changing high street conditions before being hit hard by the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Intu shared this information with lenders to give them a snapshot of where the business is after asking for standstill-based agreements that would help it avoid breaching covenants on certain centres until December 2021.