Retail footfall down 1.9% in July
New figures have shown that retail footfall was down 1.9% last month to mark the worst July decline since 2012.
According to data from Springboard and the British Retail Consortium, high street footfall dropped by 2.7% while footfall in shopping centres fell by 3.1%.
Meanwhile, retail park footfall increased by 1.2% as the destinations benefited from warm weather in the last week of July.
Diane Wehrle, Springboard marketing and insights director, said: “The positive footfall result for out of town destinations in July, particularly the fact that footfall rose by 2.1% during day time trading hours, demonstrates that if the offer is right consumers will spend.”
Figures from the BRC and Springboard also reveal that the national town centre vacancy rate was 10.3% in July. This was a slight increase on the previous quarter’s rate of 10.2% and the highest since January 2015.
Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive, said: “If the Government wishes to avoid seeing more empty shops in our town centres then they must act to relieve some of the pressure bearing down on the high street.”
