Sports helped boost UK footfall in July, but riots dampen high street expectations

Footfall in the UK fell over the past month, despite initially showing promise in light of the slew of sporting events that took place over the period. For the five weeks from June 30 to July 27, 2024, month-on-month, July footfall had been considered “steady” by MRI Software, appearing to rise marginally across the UK in all retail destinations.

This was particularly driven by a rise in high street footfall, for which the data platform attributed the uptick to early vacationing among consumers and the influence of England’s matches in the final stages of the Euro’s.

Retail parks and shopping centres remained “stagnant” month-on-month, with “slight fluctuations balancing out overall performance”. The latter did see a boost in footfall in the final week of the month, which MRI said could reflect a bounce back due to adjusted opening times in light of the Euro’s final the week prior.

While MRI had initially expressed optimism when looking ahead to the coming weeks, with Olympic-themed events and Taylor Swift’s final leg of the Era’s Tour being cited as possible contributors to footfall boost, this positivity was quickly dampened when far-right rioters took to the streets in early August.

According to new data from MRI Software, seen by the Guardian, footfall on UK high streets fell by an average of 4.8 percent between Sunday, August 4, and Wednesday, August 7. This compared to a smaller drop in footfall for other retail destinations, such as shopping centres and retail parks.

In addition to this, the number of people on high streets dropped by 7.5 percent on Wednesday as shoppers were deterred by reports of further riots. Northern England and York were the regions to take the biggest hit, reporting a 12.9 percent drop in footfall over the week.