Rate of decline in footfall is slowing, according to Springboard.
Despite a drop in footfall numbers against last year, the rate of decline in comparison to 2017 is significantly slowed with the Springboard Index recording an annual decline of just -0.3 per cent for last week in comparison to -4.2 per cent in 2017. Numbers also dropped against the previous week, halting the short run of weekly incremental growth with a result of -2.0 per cent.
Given that retail parks have only seen an annual drop in 16 of the previous rolling 52 weeks, it is unsurprising that volumes grew by +1.5 per cent last week. However, this does outperform the average increase of +0.8 per cent across that rolling period, as the rate of growth in retail parks has slowed. The weekly increase though, falls below that of shopping centres, which saw a drop of just -1.6 per cent in comparison to -2.1 per cent for retail parks. High streets and shopping centres saw the same annual result of -0.8 per cent, which for both disguises the full regional tale.
The relatively small annual drop for shopping centres (in comparison to the rolling 52 week average of -1.6%), disguises the full regional tale, as just 3 regions (Greater London, South West and West Midlands) saw an annual increase with a peak in the West Midlands of +2.2 per cent, in contrast to the remainder of the country which saw declines of up to -5.3 per cent (in Wales). High street annual change was more volatile, stretching from an increase of +6.9 per cent in the East Midlands, the greatest rise of five regional increases, down to -7.7 per cent in Wales.
