Landsec, owner of one of the UK’s leading retail and leisure portfolios, has expanded its partnership with the retail industry charity the Retail Trust to support employees at its shopping destinations affected by abuse at work.
Through the Retail Trust’s Let’s Respect Retail campaign to tackle abuse, Landsec piloted free resilience and de-escalation training at four of its major shopping destinations in 2025 and 2026. The practical sessions gave hundreds of people the skills and confidence to manage challenging interactions and recover quickly after difficult moments on the shop floor.
This month, the Retail Trust’s support will be rolled out across a further 13 Landsec destinations across the UK*, ensuring retail staff, cleaners and security and guest services teams, from Glasgow to Portsmouth, get the help they need when experiencing challenges at work.
Everyone working at a Landsec shopping destination will be given access to new online tools from the Retail Trust on the Landsec Protect app to help them stay safe, respond to difficult situations and recover afterwards. This includes new advice on how to respond to issues like antisocial behaviour and being filmed without consent or targeted after a shift.
There will also be more face-to-face support ranging from new staff training to meetings with retail managers to help them protect their teams.
The partnership is being expanded as the British Retail Consortium’s 2026 Crime Report reveals that retail workers face more than 1,600 incidents of violence and abuse every day, with 43,000 physically violent incidents per year. The newly introduced Crime and Policing Act has now made the assault of a retail worker a standalone criminal offense in England and Wales – further underlining the significance of the issue.
Throughout the remainder of 2026, The Retail Trust’s Let’s Respect Retail materials will be visible across Landsec’s shopping centres. More than 300 businesses backed the campaign last year by displaying messages in stores and shop windows asking people to treat their staff with kindness and the Retail Trust and Landsec will be once again calling on shoppers to act respectfully in the run up to this Christmas.
A security guard who took part in the training earlier this year said: “When you’re dealing with antisocial behaviour or difficult customers, it can stay with you even after your shift has finished and you can feel anxious about coming back into work the next day.’’
“The training was really useful because it showed that people across different roles are dealing with many of the same challenges, and that there is support available from the Retail Trust. The coping techniques were practical and there was something in there that could work for everyone.”
“This is going to become even more important coming up to Christmas, when there are going to be more shoppers, more pressure and more temporary staff who may not have dealt with these situations before. Support like this gives people more confidence to know how to respond and how to look after themselves afterwards.”
Bruce Findlay, managing director of retail at Landsec, commented: “Everyone has the right to feel safe and respected at work. Our industry depends on the millions of people working in our place and abuse should never be accepted as simply part of the job.
“At Landsec and across our UK-wide destinations, we believe it’s vital we do everything we can to ensure difficult situations don’t become the norm or deter people from joining and staying in our industry. That’s why we’re extending our partnership with the Retail Trust to increase access to training and support for people working in the shops, restaurants and keeping our places clean and secure. And we’re asking everyone who visits our destinations to play their part in ensuring retail workers feel respected and valued. If the people at the heart of our places feel supported, it should lead to better experiences and more reasons for our guests to smile.”
Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the Retail Trust, said: “The people who’ve taken part in our training tell us that thoughtless, unkind and aggressive behaviour can stay with them long after their shift has ended and that they increasingly worry about situations like filming by shoppers or being targeted outside of work. We’re working with Landsec to give thousands of staff working at its shopping destinations more support while reminding millions of shoppers to treat everyone with respect.
“We all have a role to play in creating more respectful and kinder shopping environments and our charity’s Let’s Respect Retail campaign will remind us all that even something as simple as a greeting or a smile can make a huge difference to people who are facing daily hostility at work.”
