Omicron variant pushes footfall to city centres

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Omicron variant pushes footfall to city centres

Footfall to city centres is declining because of the new Omicron variant, which is prompting more people to stay at home, according to data.

Footfall in large cities outside London fell by 3.8 per cent last week compared to the week before, according to Springboard data. A central London back to office benchmark, which measures only areas in close proximity to offices, recorded a 2 per cent fall.

Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said last week that there was the first evidence of an early impact on footfall of the Omicron variant. Large city centres outside of the capital are not benefiting from the central London being supported by its retail and leisure offer in the run-up to Christmas. The start of the Christmas shopping season lifted footfall across the UK s retail destinations by 0.7 per cent, with shopping centres and retail parks performing better than high streets. Footfall in central London increased by 0.5 per cent as the capital s retail destinations increased footfall by 1.8 per cent. Footfall in the capital is still 17.4 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels, but 43 per cent higher than in 2020.

Springboard said that the North and Yorkshire region saw only negative week-on- week growth, with footfall falling by 2.3 per cent. Footfall in the east of the country increased by 3.5 per cent. Market towns have performed strongly as more people work from home.

In November, like-for-like sales lifted by 1.8 per cent compared to a year earlier and by 4.1 per cent on the same month in 2019 according to the figures from the British Retail Consoritum. Like-for-like food sales declined by 0.5 per cent year-on-year, while non-food like-for like sales increased by 3.9 per cent.