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National High Street Index

April 2009 Commentary
 

For the first time since August 2007 footfall in the UK's high streets increased annually in April by 0.7%. Comparison with last April is complicated by Easter being a month earlier last year, however, April's results reinforce the Index results for March with further evidence that shoppers are indeed returning to the high street.

However, in contrast to last month, when the issue was whether footfall was being converted into spend, April's results from the BRC indicate that this is now starting to happen. The BRC reported a like for like increase in sales of 4.6% in April with clothing, footwear and outdoor leisure showing the best growth of the non-food sector, all of which are categories of goods that dominate our high streets.
 

Despite the difficulties in comparing Easter this year with Easter in 2008, what can be seen is that the week of Good Friday this year was definitely the busier trading week for town centres, with footfall increasing by 4.3% from the previous week compared with a decrease of 2% in the following Easter Monday week.
 

Footfall trends in our large regional cities in April were similar to the national average, albeit that footfall increased by 1.7% annually compared with the national average of +0.7%. The popularity of regional cities to shoppers was illustrated further by the greater than average increase in footfall in the week leading up to Easter Sunday (an average increase of 8.6% in the first week of the month in regional cities compared with 4.3% nationally).

Perhaps not surprisingly, footfall in our coastal town centres increased to a greater extent in the week of Good Friday than in high streets across the UK generally (+18%). On the downside, however, it also appears to be more erratic with a decrease of virtually the same magnitude in the third week of the month (-17%), followed by an increase in footfall of 11% in the last week of the month.

All Towns and Cities

Regional Cities

Apr 08 to Apr 09

0.7%

Apr 08 to Apr 09

1.7%

Mar 08 to Mar 09

-0.2%

Mar 08 to Mar 09

0.3%

Feb 08 to Feb 09

-7.8%

Feb 08 to Feb 09

-0.9%

Mar to Apr 09

5.6%

Mar to Apr 09

0.1%

Mar to Apr 08

5.6%

Mar to Apr 08

0.1%

Feb to Mar 09

3.8%

Feb to Mar 09

0.1%

Feb to Mar 08

-4.0%

Feb to Mar 08

-4.9%

Jan to Feb 09

10.3%

Jan to Feb 09

12.7%

Jan to Feb 08

11.0%

Jan to Feb 08

8.2%