THE collapse of the high street has cost the British taxpayer more than £1 billion over the last five years.

The government has had to shell out huge sums to cover redundancy payments and unpaid wages left by large firms who have pulled down the shutters.

It stumped up £802 million between 2013-14 and 2017-18 in redundancy pay and an extra £138 million for arrears, according to figures obtained via Freedom of Information requests by Scotland’s Herald newspaper.

Another £77 million went on protective awards — compensation awarded by employment tribunals when bosses have failed to properly consult workers being made redundant.

Workers left out of pocket included those at fallen retail giants such as British Home Stores, Comet, Maplin and Toys R Us.

Retail workers’ union Usdaw described the protective awards as a “perverse financial incentive for administrators not to comply with legal obligations on collective redundancy consultation.”

In Scotland alone, the payments made by the Insolvency Service to unemployed workers totalled more than £75 million.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: “These are deeply troubling figures.

“While it is absolutely right that the Insolvency Service continues to protect workers’ pay when firms go bust, something is obviously going very wrong with our economy to have so many firms closing.

“That points to the abject failure of the both the SNP and the Tories to have any plan for the economy.”

A Westminster government spokesman said it recognises the struggles the high street is facing and “strives to support all businesses facing challenges.”