// New data shows the most and least popular UK high streets, with Liverpool landing at the top and Coventry on the bottom
// Liverpool is the UK city still holding on to the high street the most, with residents doing more high street spending than anywhere else in the UK
New data from Small Business Prices has revealed that Liverpool is the number one UK city for high-street shopping.
The organisation analysed the 30 most populous cities in the UK, taking into consideration the level of high street spending, footfall and the number of retail addresses at the locations.
Liverpool ranked in first place on the list, with a consumer spending score of 134 (compared to a pre-lockdown baseline of 100) which was higher than any other city on a list of 30 and just 12% of vacant high street services, beating out other cities.
Plymouth came in second place overall for a thriving high street, topping the list when it comes to high street footfall. The coastal city logged the highest footfall on both weekdays and weekends, with a score of 176 and 186 for each, respectively (compared to the pre-lockdown baseline of 100).
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Coventry fell in last place, followed by Reading and Birmingham, with all three cities scoring poorly for high street spending and some of the lowest footfall in the country.
While all regions of the UK had experienced a decline in high street shops, the North saw the least with a net decline of -71 so far in 2022.
This was followed by Wales with minus 100 and the East Midlands with -136.
London saw the biggest decrease in the number of high street shops, with a net loss of -389.
Although the capital scored the second-highest number of retail addresses (45), despite performing poorly in the overall ranking.
The report stated that “the capital’s large number of stores is most likely down to it being the UK’s biggest city, and is unfortunately let down by a very low level of high street spending and footfall in proportion to its population size”.
Stoke-on-Trent came out on top as having the most retail outlets on the high street at 53, beating the capital by a wide margin despite being a smaller city.
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