BRC figures reveal slump in retail footfall
Figures released by the British Retail Consortium have shown that footfall in UK shops between August and October was down 2.3% compared with the same period last year. This represents the worst footfall drop of 2011.
The BRC/Springboard-ATCM footfall and vacancies monitor found that footfall measures in high street and shopping centres fell 2.5%, while out-of-town fell by 2.0% in the period. Over the last 12 months high streets on average have seen the biggest drop in footfall of 2.7%.
The hardest hit locations were the West Midlands (-10.4%), Scotland (-9.0%) and Northern Ireland (-5.5%). The best performing locations were the South East (2.9%), Wales (1.8%) and Greater London (-0.1%).
The national town centre vacancy rate in the UK was 11.1% in October 2011 (high streets and shopping centres) while Northern Ireland (12.9%), East Midlands (12.7%) and the North and Yorkshire (12.5%) recorded the highest vacancy rates.
Commenting on the figures Stephen Robertson, British Retail Consortium director general, said. “In October, UK high streets saw the sharpest drop in footfall since last December’s blizzards. A successful Christmas will be a lifeline for many retailers and they will be hoping that sort of disruption doesn’t add to their woes this time around.”
