UK footfall slips back in latest week

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
May 17, 2022

UK footfall’s post-pandemic recovery took a hit last week as concerns over rising prices and worries over an impending recession deepened.

There were negative numbers (almost) everywhere for the seven days spanning 8-14 May as footfall across all UK retail destinations declined 0.7% week-on-week. Retail parks (down 1.8%) and shopping centres (down 2.3%) took the brunt of the fall.
 
Overall, Sunday (-6.1%), Thursday (-3.8%) and Saturday (-2.4%) were the days where footfall dropped most significantly in shopping centres. In retail parks, the poorest performing days were Sunday (-3.2%), Monday (-9%) and Saturday (-4%).

Meanwhile, footfall levels also worsened to -13.5% from -9.3% in the week before compared to the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.
 
But there were a couple of brighter notes. At least high streets put up a modest fightback with a 0.7% week-on-week gain and there were signs London workers are returning to the office with a “significant” rise in footfall of 4.4% in Springboard’s Central London ‘Back to the Office’ benchmark.
 
Footfall also rose in Outer London by 3.4% and in market towns by 2.7%. 
 
Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, said: “The warm and dry weather supported high streets last week… activity was more consistent with drops on only two days although the extent of this decline averaged twice the rise over the five other days.”