Footfall continues to decline
New data has revealed that footfall across all UK retail destinations declined by 3.1% last week from the previous seven day period.
On an annual basis, footfall was down by 32.3% compared to a decline of 30.9% in the prior week.
The figures from retail specialist Springboard reveal that larger cities felt the biggest impact from increased Covid-19 restrictions. Regional cities saw a 5.7% week-on-week decline compared to respective drops of 2.1% and 1.2% in market and coastal towns.
In addition, the 10pm curfew imposed on hospitality venues led to a 4.5% drop in high street footfall after 6pm.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “The additional Covid tiered restrictions had an immediate impact on footfall in retail destinations last week with an across the board week on week decline; the fourth consecutive drop and also greater than that in previous weeks. The drop in footfall was equally severe across all three
destination types, although on an annual basis retail parks continue to remain by far the most resilient.
“Notwithstanding this, the year on year decline in footfall in all three destination types accelerated once again, with the largest gap between this year and last year for nine weeks.”
Meanwhile, footfall in central London was down 2.3% on the previous week and down 59.7% on last year.
