UK city-centre retail footfall up after train strikes

UK city-centre retail footfall rose last week as employees returned to offices following train strikes the week previous, according to a weekly survey.

MRI Springboard’s central London ‘Back to the Office’ benchmark, which tracks footfall at office hotspots in London, was up +36.4% in the week to February 11 compared to 2022.

Regional cities outside London also benefited, with annual footfall up 19%. Footfall across all UK retail destinations rose 9.1% annually, with a week-on-week footfall boost of 1.6%.

The largest increase across destination type was seen on high streets with 2.4% weekly increase, against modest week-on-week rises at retail parks (0.9%) and shopping centres (0.8%). However, the gap to pre-Covid pandemic 2019 remained 14.5% lower across all UK retail destinations.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com