Shopping centres lead the way according to Springboard
The tail end of January entering February is typically a tough period for retail with the cold weather keeping consumers indoors and payday being absorbed by Christmas bills. However, footfall increased again against the previous week, as it has consecutively since the beginning of the year with a Springboard Index growth of +2.4 per cent. This increase was not matched by annual growth, but the dip of -0.8 per cent reflects the average result for week 5 of the calendar since 2015.
Shopping centre footfall led the week on week growth with an uplift of +3.4 per cent, this change in volumes helped to slow the annual rate of decline for the week to just -1.2 per cent against last year, an improvement on the -2.0 per cent annual drop of last year and the average drop of -1.6 per cent since 2015.
High streets recorded an annual decline of -0.9 per cent but this drop follows a comparable increase of +0.8 per cent in 2017 and a polarisation of regional results, which are split equally with 5 regions recording annual increases of up to +4.2 per cent (in the South West).
Retail park performance was the only location to see an annual increase on top of the weekly increase of +1.6 per cent, with numbers growing +0.1 per cent on last year, a result led by the South East and South West, which each saw changes of +5.2 per cent.
