It appears that the high street has settled into what is a new reality of a long term annual downward trend in footfall of around 5%. In September, the annual change in footfall in the UK’s high streets was -5.5%, following an annual decline 4.4% in August, with a year on year decline of 4.9% for the year to date to the end of September.

Worryingly for the high street, the degree of decline in its footfall appears to be mirrored by an increase in customer activity of a similar magnitude in out of town retail and shopping park locations. The Springboard Retail Park Index recorded an annual increase of 5% in September (compared with -5.5% in town centres) and a change for the year to date of +4.6% (compared with -4.9% in town centres).

What is also important, however, is to appreciate that not all town centres are experiencing the same rate of decline in footfall.

The positive news is that in 23% of the UK’s town centres, footfall actually increased annually in September and, in a further 21%, the year on year decline since September 2008 was less than 5%.

On the downside, however, this also means that in over half of all UK town centres footfall declined annually by more than 5% in September, with 29% experiencing an annual fall in footfall of over 10%.

And the next obvious question is whether the decline in footfall in our high streets has any geographic pattern: and it seems that largely this isn’t the case, with all regions nationally experiencing an annual decline in footfall in September. However, town centres in Wales and the South West are seeing the greatest loss of footfall, with both annual experiencing an annual decline of over 13% in September.

Sep 08 to Sep 09

-5.3%

Sep 08 to Sep 09

-2.6%

Aug 08 to Aug 09

-4.4%

Aug 08 to Aug 09

-4.1%

Jul 08 to Jul 09

-7.3%

Jul 08 to Jul 09

-5.9%

Aug to Sep 09

-6.6%

Aug to Sep 09

-8.0%

Aug to Sep 08

-8.6%

Aug to Sep 08

-7.7%

Jul to Aug 09

2.1%

Jul to Aug 09

3.9%

Jul to Aug 08

0.5%

Jul to Aug 08

1.8%

Jun to Jul 09

4.8%

Jun to Jul 09

7.6%

Jun to Jul 08

6.1%

Jun to Jul 08

5.8%

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