Riots ‘severely impacted’ shopper footfall in early August

Riots across the UK earlier this month “severely impacted” shopper footfall as many consumers stayed away from shops and retail parks during the violent unrest, according to a report.

Latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC)-Sensormatic IQ revealed that UK footfall fell 0.4% in August, dropping for the 13th month in a row.

Some cities fared worse than others, with footfall tumbling by 8.1% in Birmingham while Bristol and Cardiff saw declines of 4.2% and 4.1% respectively.

Footfall also fell 3.6% in Nottingham and was 1.9% down in Liverpool.

The summer riots were seen in parts of Britain earlier this month in the wake of the stabbings in Southport.

The data showed that footfall bounced back in retail parks in the week following the riots, helping it rise 2.6% overall throughout August in out-of-town destinations as some shoppers continued to avoid high streets and shopping centres.

Footfall then rebounded strongly across all shopping destinations at the end of the month, thanks to warmer weather and summer discounting, according to the report.

This meant that the footfall decline overall in the month still improved despite the riots, paring back from a 3.3% decline in July.

The data also showed that Northern Ireland and Scotland enjoyed a rise in shopper footfall, up 1.4% and 0.7% year-on-year respectively, while there were declines of 0.5% across England and 1.8% in Wales.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “As violent disorder erupted across the country earlier in the month, footfall was severely impacted as many people stayed away from shopping destinations.”

She called on the Government to help the retail sector with an overhaul of business rates at the upcoming October Budget.

She said: “While year-on-year footfall changes improved on July, they remain in negative territory.

“Local communities need Government to implement its high streets plan to help drive footfall back into growth.

“The upcoming budget is an opportunity to move forward with the plan to fix the broken business rates system which acts as a brake on retail investment, and contributes to our declining high streets as it leads to so many store closures up and down the country.”

Andy Sumpter, retail consultant EMEA for Sensormatic Solutions, said in spite of the disruption in early August, footfall was “tantalisingly close to returning a positive year-on-year performance”.

“Retailers will be hoping that the resilience seen in August… will lead to longer-term growth for store traffic,” he said.

Shopper footfall by city, year-on-year, in August: