// UK footfall edges up 0.4% as office workers return, Central London down 50.9% year-on-year
// High street weekly footfall grew 2.6%, but retail parks down 0.9% & shopping centres down 2.7%
Overall footfall increased by just 0.4 per cent last week compared to the previous seven days, as more workers returned to their offices in town centres.
According to Springboard weekly footfall monitor, high streets, where many offices are located, saw a 2.6 per cent uptick week-on-week.
Footfall to retail parks slid 0.9 per cent and at shopping centres footfall was down 2.7 per cent, both of which suggests more consumers have returned to offices – especially since children returned to schools for the first time in months.
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“The week of August Bank Holiday Monday, which for many households represented the first week that children returned to school, led to a modest rise in footfall across all UK retail destinations,” Springboard insights director Diane Wehrle said.
“Last week’s result was enough to continue the trend of recovery, delivering the best year on year result since the start of the lockdown in March.”
Springboard said that while week-on-week footfall is slowly improving, on a year-on-year basis it remains down 25 per cent overall – although this marked the best result since the start of lockdown.
In addition, despite the improving conditions for high streets specifically, it remains more that 40 per cent down on the year.
Central London – with barely any tourist footfall and many cultural attractions and restaurants still closed – was down 50.9 per cent year-on-year last week.
However, this is a marked improvement on the 60 per cent-plus decline that was reported during July and August.
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