Footfall continues to decline but stays above Lockdown 1 levels
Current levels are still some way off from the lowest level of -82.2% reached during the first lockdown
Footfall across UK retail destinations declined by -10.9% last week from the week before, but has managed to stay above levels seen during the first lockdown last year.
According to the latest data from Springboard, the 10% decline was less than half the drop of -27.1% in the previous week. Footfall was -14.6% lower in shopping centres and -11.5% lower in high streets, however in retail parks the drop was less than half this at -5.8%.
UK footfall is now 67.5% lower than in the same week of 2020, however, this is still some way off from the lowest level of -82.2% reached during the first lockdown, or even the level in the second week of Lockdown 1.0 when footfall declined by -75.1%.
Springboard found that the rate of decline in footfall varied from area to area, ranging from as much as -17.6% in the North and Yorkshire, to just -4.7% in Wales, whilst rising by +1.6% in Scotland.
All of the decline in footfall in Scotland was driven by an increase in activity in its high streets of +6%, whilst in all other areas of the UK high street footfall declined by between -6% (East Midlands) to -20.4% (North &Yorkshire).
The rate of decline in footfall from the week before averaged -23.6% on Sunday and Monday, whilst from Tuesday onwards this slowed considerably to an average of just -5.5%, with a rise of +3.3% on Friday.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “In what was the second full week of lockdown across the UK, footfall in retail destinations once again declined from the previous week, although the rate of decline slowed to less than half of that in the week before.
“This means that the annual decline in footfall has still not equalled either the lowest level in Lockdown 1 or even the level in the second week of Lockdown 1”.
