UK footfall rises wholly driven by high streets as back to the office gathers pace

Footfall across all UK retail destinations rose 1.5% last week, 9-15 January, compared to the week before, which was driven wholly by a 7.2% rise of footfall in high streets, indicating the first signs of confidence in returning to the office.

Footfall in retail parks declined by -4.9% compared to the week before and shopping centres saw a -4% drop, according to the latest data from retail experts Springboard.

In high streets the uplift over the final three days of the week from the week before averaged +21.2% and peaked at +30.1% on Saturday.

Footfall across all types of destination ranged from +3.6% in historic towns to +12% in Springboard's Central London “Back to the Office Benchmark”.

The gap from 2019 narrowed marginally to -21.3% across all UK retail destinations last week, but the strong performance of high streets improved their position relative to 2019 to -26.9% from -30.9% in the week before. The drop in footfall in retail parks and shopping centres meant that the gap in footfall from 2019 in both destination types widened to -4.2% and -26% respectively.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, commented: “The second week of the year delivered mixed results; an overall increase in footfall across all UK retail destinations from the week before, but a rise that was driven wholly by high streets, while in both retail parks and shopping centres activity declined.

“It seems that whilst the government's Plan B guidance to work from home if possible is still in place, there are the first signs that employees are starting to drift back to the office. For the first time since mid-November footfall rose in high streets from the week before across all periods of the day, with a double digit increase in the first part of the day, when employees travel in to offices, for the second consecutive week.

“In addition, footfall rose in all types of town, including Central London and regional cities outside of the capital, and the increase in Springboard's Central London ‘Back to the Office Benchmark’ (comprising those locations in close proximity to offices) exceeded the increase in footfall across Central London as a whole.”