Retail footfall drops at sharpest rate since Brexit vote

Numbers of shoppers popping into UK stores dropped at the steepest rate since the Brexit vote, as retailers online channels were the preferred way of picking up clearance sale bargains.

Footfall in January declined 1.3% in January compared to the same month last year and accelerating from the 0.2% fall in December, according to data collected by the British Retail Consortium and retail research firm Springboard.

The sharpest drop in footfall since June dragged the rate below the three-month average of 0.8%.

Springboard's insights director Diane Wehrle said the drop in footfall across the UK's bricks and mortar destinations "may be a sign of tougher things to come in 2017".

"Not only was it a noticeably larger drop than the -0.2% in December; but it was the steepest decline since June 2016, when footfall was impacted in the preceding weeks and in the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum.

“The results are consistent with longer term footfall trends, with an underperformance of shopping centres against high streets and retail parks. Of significance is that footfall is correlating closely with retail sales, with all sales results published so far showing a poorer performance in January than in January 2016," she said.

The BRC was slightly heartened that the shop vacancy rate in town centres eased very moderately to 9.4% in January from the 9.5% to stand at its lowest rate since the 8.7% a year ago.

London saw the strongest improvement, with the proportion of empty shops falling from 9.5% to 8.4% over the three months to January.

However, while London boosted the shop vacancy rate, BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson noted that on a regional level the number of empty shops "remains worryingly high and act merely as a blot on landscape of local communities".

She also joined wider calls for an abandoning of the government's proposed business rates hike.

“At a time when retail is being re-imagined as customers seek more engaging experiences in our high streets, town centres and retail park and centres, the incentive for retailers to innovate and invest in physical space is being curtailed by the upward only trajectory of business rates. This disincentive needs to be removed and the burden reduced thereby encouraging, rather than deterring, investment to the benefit of those local communities most impacted.”