Retail footfall in the UK increased by 2.7% last week from the previous seven-day period after city centres numbers were lifted by more people returning offices.
Data from Springboard shows footfall rose by 6.5% in central London and by 6.1% in large city centres outside of the capital. The rise was even greater in areas of central London dominated by offices at 8.8%.
By type of retail location, footfall in high streets across the UK rose by 3.7% while shopping centres and retail parks saw respective increases of 2.3% and 0.9%. The increase in high streets marked a significant improvement from the same week in 2019 when there was a decline of 6.3%.
The figures mean that the gap in footfall from 2019 levels in retail destinations narrowed to -15.2% from -19.9% in the week before.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “High street footfall was undoubtedly supported by a shift back to the office, demonstrated by a greater uplift from the week before in Central London and large city centres outside of the capital, than in smaller high streets and in Outer London. In areas of Central London with a large proportion of office rather than retail space, footfall rose by more than in Central London as a whole.
“The greater rise in footfall in high streets meant that the gap from the 2019 level narrowed significantly, and is now a third less than in shopping centres.”
NAM Implications:
- Every little helps…
- Key issue has to be the eventual settling point.
- (given that rental levels drive corporate office-block values, then the office vs home-working balance will determine continuing viability…)
- This in turn will drive retail footfall, where sales/sq. ft. determines rental & business rates viability… (the ability of a retailer to survive in a given location)
- The market will adjust store numbers to reflect these realities.
- i.e. we are nowhere near exiting the woods yet…
