Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, made the shocking announcement as pressure mounts on Boris Johnson to devise a lockdown exit strategy. Mr Marshall added tat a third of companies were working “with some difficulty”.

It comes as official data exposed that two-thirds of UK businesses have claimed the Government’s furlough scheme, but only a fifth have received support so far.

Mr Marshall said: “We’ve seen significant impact right across the economy, right across the UK.

“About a third of the economy is functioning as normal, a third is functioning with some difficulty and about a third has shut down due to the lockdown.

“Our data is showing that retail, hospitality, catering, leisure and manufacturers have had some of the biggest impacts to date.

“We are also seeing a big impact in international trade. We have seen volumes drop in some of our trade indicators of around 25 percent over the past six weeks.”

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the Government’s coronavirus job retention scheme was the most popular support programme, with 66 percent of firms surveyed having applied.

But the figures from 5,158 firms revealed that just 19 percent of companies that have applied have received support since it went live on April 20.

More than half – 56 percent – of businesses have also applied for the VAT deferral scheme, although just 42 percent have received the help.

Retail, hospitality, catering, leisure and manufacturers were revealed as the hardest-hit industries during Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy committee’s virtual meeting this morning.

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Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association, told the same committee it has been the “worst time ever for retail”.

A fifth of retailers implied they will not go back to business after the pandemic has died down, meaning the already suffering high streets will have even more complications.

Mr Goodacre said that 20 percent of retail bosses surveyed by his trade organisation claimed they do not intend to reopen after the lockdown.

He added: “For those even saying they would look to reopen, there is a huge caveat about the level of trade on whether they would continue to reopen.

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“If the footfall is impacted and social distancing exists and they find it hard to meet needs of customers and workers, it would be more expensive to reopen than to stay closed.”

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, told the committee that 69 percent of non-food retailers have been “significantly” damaged by the pandemic.

She added: “There is no way that anybody is expecting that demand will revert to what it was before – there will be a slow gearing back up.

“What implementing social distancing will mean is that normal capacity to serve customers will be restricted and, certainly from a public perspective, I have no doubt that people will be very cautious about how they shop, for safety reasons and because of pressure on money in their pockets.

“It’s important not to turn off the tap, so the Government has to be careful about how financial support schemes taper off.”

Non-essential businesses have been closed since March as part of the Government’s efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Boris Johnson has gathered the Cabinet to plan out an “exit strategy” the reopen the economy, but he seems to signal the lockdown restrictions will stay in place until June.

The Prime Minister has been called to treat the public like “grown ups” as concerned business owner struggle to stay afloat.

However, Mr Johnson is said to have put the “R” number at the core of his plans to beat the virus by not taking actions that could pose an increase.

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