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.”
Never Miss a Retail Update!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.”
