It’s not just those small companies or those that were already on the way down that are suffering at the moment. M&S announced today that they will be shedding 1,230 jobs in the UK and closing 27 of its small food stores.

It is not too surprising that M&S has been forced to make these cuts. The signs seemed pretty obvious well before today, as they announced 20% sale after 20% sale in the weeks running up to Christmas. Although the shops were packed on those sale days, it was a terrible indication of the state of the business.

This has not been a good week for those working in the retail industry...and its only Wednesday. On Monday Adams, which fell into administration after Christmas, cut another 850 staff, while Passion for Perfume collapsed leaving 185 people jobless. Whilst just today the womenswear company Viyella called in the administrators, putting at risk another 450 jobs.

Things are only going to get worse on the high street in the next few weeks and months. It seems now seems even more important than ever that the government stops playing politics with policies such as VAT cuts, and focuses upon the problems in hand. First step for retailers, get the credit insurance market working asap.

So Woolworths has collapsed...to be honest it’s not that surprising. In these tough times it was one of those stores that were definitely going to struggle. Although these stores have dominate many UK and international high streets for about a century anyone who has been into one lately will have realised that the store format was thoroughly dated and fading fast. It seems almost inevitable that without a substantial change Woollies would fade and die.

Some might argue that recessions are good for this sort of thing, doing away with those businesses that have fallen behind the times and are no longer efficient or desirable in a modern economy. In many ways this is true, however, the size of Woolworths could have a much wider adverse impact in the current market.

In the long run customers will forget Woolworths, spending will move to other stores and the old Woolworths space will be filled. However, in the short run other successfully run companies may not be able to cope with the transition caused by the collapse. For example Woollies had a substantial supply chain across the country supplying a variety of products.

In more normal times these supplies may have been able to rely on debt whilst they wait for demand to come from the other stores that pick up the custom from Woolworths. However without the credit markets supplies cannot get the debt to make this happen. Therefore this part of the supply chain is likely to fail.

Also of worry is the problems faced by many retails that are unable to get credit insurance. This is one of the problems that led to the sudden collapse of Woolworths. With a lack of debt and liquidity in the economy, insurers are unable or unwilling to provide suppliers with credit insurance. In normal times, retailers buy goods from supplies on credit and pay them back as they sell the goods, and the retailers take out credit insurance to protect against the retailer going bust. Without this insurance the supply has to demand upfront payment from retailers which runs down retailer's available cash and can leave them without available funds to continue trading.

Unless something is done able available credit insurance other retailers will go bust, retailers that are far better prepared for the current market downturn than Woolworths. If more retailers go bust then more suppliers will go bust and the efficient retail supply chain that has been constructed will break down.

This is again an example of where the government should have acted rather than cutting VAT and the other broad brush measures announced in the pre-budget report. The current downturn required targeted solutions, not crude populist announcements.

The French government announced this week that they were actively considering providing guarantees for supplier credit insurance. This is an excellent idea that should be high on the Treasury's agenda. If not more retailers will fail, unemployment will rise rapidly and the high street will lose some much loved stores in a years time.