Footfall not impacted by ‘rule of six’
New data has revealed that footfall across UK retail destinations rose by 2.4% last week from the week before as the government’s “rule of six” came into force.
The figures from retail specialist Springboard show that the new ruling did not reduce consumers’ appetite for making trips to high streets. The destinations saw a healthy increase of 5.2%, although there was a big geographic variation with uplifts ranging from just 0.9% in Wales to 9.6% in Scotland and 12.2% in Northern Ireland.
In contrast, footfall in shopping centres and retails parks declined by over 0.8% and 0.3% respectively.
Looking at the the different types of high street locations, footfall in market towns rose by 1.5% while footfall in coastal towns and historic towns increased by a respective 4.4% and 7.3%. Central London also saw an uplift with footfall rising by 6%, although it was still down 56.1% down on the same period last year.
The overall figures mean that the gap from last year widened slightly with a year-on-year decline in UK footfall of 28.7% compared to 27.5% the week before. Retail parks continued to outperform high streets and shopping centres, with footfall 12.5% lower than last year compared with respective declines of 34.3% in high streets and 32.6% in shopping centres.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard said: “After the first week of the ‘rule of six’, retail footfall bounced back after last week’s first decrease in footfall since mid-April. However, unlike last year when footfall also rose in this week, the increase in footfall was wholly driven by high streets whilst footfall in both retail parks and shopping centres declined from the week before.
“The fact that Central London recorded the second highest uplift of any high street type after historic town centres whilst the rise in footfall in market towns was the most modest, suggests that consumers were making the most of the last days of summer to travel further afield to enjoy the great weather.”
Photo by Georgia Hawkins
