Major beauty and medical retailer Boots is to close hundreds of stores and pharmacies across the UK, with a number of Hertfordshire sites at risk.

Boots, which employs 52,000 people, is set to close some 300 stores across the country over the next 12 months.

This comes after similar moves were announced by brands like Argos and HSBC earlier this year.

Boots has stores in Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth, Welwyn Garden City, St Albans, Harpenden and Royston, which could all go, although the exact stores to close is yet to be revealed.

A spokesperson for the beauty retailer told the Telegraph: "Evolving the store estate in this way allows Boots to concentrate its team members where they are needed and focus investment more acutely in individual stores with the ambition of consistently delivering an excellent and reliable service in a fresh and up to date environment."

These reported closures have raised concerns over the future relationship between the popular chain and its owner Walgreens Boots Alliance.

James Kehoem, global chief financial officer at Walgreens said: "We will continue to optimise our locations and opening hours, and expect to close an additional 300 locations in the UK and 150 locations in the US."

Walgreens was supposed to sell the brand until an "unexpected and dramatic change" in the world financial markets reportedly disrupted a potential buyout.

With this new spate of closures, it is expected that the company will reduce its number of locations from 2200 stores to just 1900.

In previous years, the brand announced plans to close stores and pharmacies across the UK with many of these closures said to have primarily affected local pharmacies.