Despite the riots impacting trade in some towns and cities at the beginning of August, overall retail footfall across the month held up as warmer weather and the start of summer sales prompted consumers to visit the shops.
BRC-Sensormatic IQ data shows that total footfall across the UK decreased by 0.4% year-on-year in August, although this was a significant improvement from the 3.3% decline in July.
Footfall on high streets and in shopping centres decreased by 0.3% and 1.8% respectively, but rose 2.6% at retail parks.
Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “As violent disorder erupted across the country earlier in the month, footfall was severely impacted as many people stayed away from shopping destinations. Retail parks saw footfall levels rise in the week following the riots as some continued to avoid high streets and shopping centres. Footfall recovered across all destinations towards the end of the month when warmer weather and summer sales prompted shoppers to browse their favourite stores.”
She added: “While year-on-year footfall changes improved on July, they remain in negative territory. Local communities need Government to implement its high streets plan to help drive footfall back into growth. The upcoming budget is an opportunity to move forward with the plan to fix the broken business rates system, which acts as a brake on retail investment and contributes to our declining high streets as it leads to so many store closures up and down the country.”
