Heatwave weighs on high street footfall - Springboard

Exceptionally hot weather weighed on high street footfall last week, according to figures released by retail analyst Springboard on Monday.

In the week to 15 August, footfall across all retail destinations in the UK rose by just 0.8%, with footfall on high streets down 0.5%, while shopping centres and retail parks saw increases of 2.4% and 1.9%, respectively.

Springboard said the heatwave had caused the slump in high street footfall but benefitted tourist hotspots, with footfall in coastal towns and historic towns 0.3% and 0.9% higher.

Compared to the same time last year, footfall remains depressed, with shopping centres and high streets seeing declines of 37.1% and 39.2%, respectively, as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic continues to be felt.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, said: "The first week of the peak summer holiday period delivered spectacularly hot weather but largely lacklustre footfall performance. Customer activity across UK retail destinations rose marginally from the week before but the uplift was less than a third of the increase recorded in the previous week.

"It was clearly high streets - where footfall marginally decreased - that subdued the overall result, whilst in shopping centres and retail parks footfall rose from the week before.

"Despite the poor performance across high streets nationally, footfall in coastal and historic town centres rose marginally, undoubtedly due to the school holiday period and hot weather, whilst in regional cities and in London in particular footfall declined."