Biggest slump in high street visits since the pandemic

BRITAIN has been hit by its biggest slump in high street visits since the pandemic after storms battered the country and forced shoppers to stay at home.

Footfall across UK stores fell by 6.2pc year on year last month, compared with a 2.3pc decline in January, with visits across high streets, retail parks and shopping centres all down.

Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of retail industry group the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said: “One of the wettest Februarys on record, exacerbated by train strikes at the start of the month, meant shoppers visited fewer stores. London, where footfall had been outperforming other cities, saw one of the most significant declines.”

The warning over the hit from wetter weather comes after Halfords this week issued its second profit warning in less than three months. It said the storms meant fewer people were coming to buy bikes. The country has been battered by Storm Isha and Storm Jocelyn in recent weeks, with forecasts suggesting this year is on course to be the wettest winter in 130 years.

Andy Sumpter, from Sensormatic Solutions, which compiled the data with the BRC, said the weather was among a host of issues weighing on retailers this month. “February saw a collision course of disruptive forces negatively impacting store traffic, meaning store visits dipped to their lowest ebb since the pandemic,” he said.

“Prior to any energy price cap reduction, and with squeezed spending budgets, the confirmation of the UK’S ‘technical recession’ in 2023 appears to have weakened consumer confidence.”

However, there were signs that pressure could soon start to ease after separate forecasts suggested that the economy is already out of recession. The British Chambers of Commerce said falling inflation, solid pay growth and a drop in interest rates were all poised to support growth this year.

GDP will grow by 0.5pc this year and 0.7pc next year, the business group said – a “weak” pace, but still 0.1 percentage points above previous predictions.

Falling inflation should let the Bank of England cut interest rates from 5.25pc currently to 4.5pc by the end of the year and 3.5pc at the end of 2025.