UK Retailers See Boost in Footfall

The rise in footfall was helped by a late Easter and the weaker pound boosting tourism, reports the BRC-Springboard April Footfall and Vacancies Monitor.

The growth in April footfall is well above the three-month average of 0.7 per cent - the first positive three-month average since May 2014, and the highest since February 2012.

According to the research, the high street experienced a growth of 2.3 per cent in April - the fastest growth since March 2014.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium said, ““The Easter holidays boosted family visits to shopping destinations in April, resulting in the fastest annual growth of footfall since March 2014. The inclusion of the holidays in this period will have distorted this figure but even looking beyond this, the picture over the last quarter has been largely positive.

“As has been the trend for some months now, high streets across most of the UK attracted the largest increase in visitors out of all shopping destinations. This translated into good news for stores too, which saw their fastest annual sales growth since January last year.

“At first glance the vacancy rate also looks positive for the month, with a modest decline. However, this average figure belies the increase that occurred in all areas of the UK except London, the East and the North, and Yorkshire. We will have to wait for the impact of April’s business rates revaluations to materialise, but the challenges businesses face as the UK negotiates its future relationship with Europe has made reducing the burden and fundamentally reforming the business tax system even more critical.”

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