UK retail footfall in January was 1.3 per cent down on a year ago, marking the steepest drop since June 2016, according to the latest BRC-Springboard statistics.

High Street footfall dropped 0.8 per cent year-on-year, worse than the three-month average of -0.1 per cent and in contrast to the 0.8 per cent rise recorded in December. Visitors to retail park locations also fell year-on-year for a third consecutive month in January. Shopping centres experienced a twelfth consecutive month of footfall decline – a further deceleration on the 1.9 per cent drop in December.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, commented: “The relentless downward trend in footfall picked up pace again in January as shopper numbers fell by 1.3 per cent over the same period in the previous year, following a 0.2 per cent decline in December.”

The figures also revealed that the national town centre vacancy rate remained stable in January at 9.4 per cent, down from 9.5 per cent in October 2016. This is the lowest vacancy rate since January 2016, when it stood at 8.7 per cent.

Dickinson added: “On a regional level, it was London that saw the strongest improvement, with the proportion of empty shops falling from 9.5 to 8.4 per cent over the three months to January. However, in some parts of the country, the number of empty shops remains worryingly high and act merely as a blot on landscape of local communities.”

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