Half-term sees footfall rise 6.2%

Footfall rose by 6.2% during half-term in the UK, according to the latest data from retail experts Springboard.

This is despite a 53.7% footfall decrease in Wales, following the country’s two-week ‘firebreak’ lockdown.

Retail park, high street and shopping centre rose by 3.5%, 5.2% and 11% over the period, respectively.

Despite being put under Tier 2 restrictions, footfall in central London rose by 11.4% from the previous week, while dropping by 1.3% in outer London.

Diane Wehrle, Springboard’s insight director, said: “The school half term break last week delivered a boost to footfall in UK retail destinations, with a noticeable increase from the week before despite a significant decrease in footfall in Wales as a consequence of the firebreak. 

“In contrast, in Central London footfall rose, even though Tier 2 restrictions were introduced in the week before. Footfall rose across all three destination types, however, shopping centres were the main beneficiary.”

She added: “This may well be due to consumers making the most of the opportunity of the half term break to shop early for Christmas in an effort to avoid queues. The varying level of annual decline continues to reflect the fact that consumers are staying local.

“Once again last week there were much smaller drops in footfall from last year in coastal, historic and market towns and in outer London centres than in regional cities and Central London.”