BrightHouse to close 30 of its UK stores, including Aylesbury

The rent-to-own firm has announced that it will close 30 of its UK stores, including the one in Hale Leys Shopping Centre, making 350 members of staff redundant.

The closures come after the company reported a £22.1 million pre-tax loss in its last set of accounts and in advance of a looming cap on interest rates in the industry.

It is hoped new jobs within the business will be offered to as many of the affected workers as possible.

A spokesman for BrightHouse said: “We are working to redeploy as many people as possible into alternative roles, but redundancies will be inevitable.

“We will be speaking to all customers affected by the store closures and either transferring them to another local store or serving them online.“

The cuts come ahead of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introducing a cap in interest rates that rent-to-own firms, such as BrightHouse, will be able to charge their customers from April.

The cap is to be introduced after the FCA recently found around 40,000 people were paying an additional £23 million per year on goods such as televisions and fridges, due to overpricing and excessive interest charges.

The Aylesbury store opened in March 2015 with a family fun day event that featured a DJ, appearances from bears Billy and Lilly and free face-painting.