Footfall in UK retail destinations down 55.4% year-on-year last week
New data has revealed that footfall across all UK retail destinations was down 55.4% year-on-year last week compared to the same seven-day period last year.
However, the figures from retail specialist Springboard show big variations between the four UK nations with a decline of 59.8% in England and respective drops of 34.3%, 30.4% and 29.6% in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Central London and regional city centres continued to be the hardest hit by the impact of Covid-19 restrictions. The annual decline in footfall in regional cities last week was 64.4% compared to 80.4% in Central London, although footfall in Central London was up 14.4% from the week before.
When looking at the figures on week-on-week basis, footfall increased by 5.9% across all UK retail destinations.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “Virtually all of the improvement in footfall occurred at each end of the week, with double digit rises from the week before on Sunday and Saturday, and far more modest uplifts during the working week.
“It seems that despite non-essential stores being closed in England, trips to bricks and mortar stores have increased across the UK as a whole, although these were more significant in shopping centres and retail parks than in high streets. Surprisingly, given the lockdown in England, week on week increases in footfall in English regions were on par or larger than in the devolved nations.”
Photo by Georgia Hawkins
