Retailing footfall takes tumble in December

Pressures on Scottish retailers at Christmas are spotlighted in a new survey today, showing year-on-year high street footfall in December slid sharply.

Scotland saw one of the largest year-on-year footfall declines, down 4.7 per cent, the largest fall since a 6.2 per cent slump in April 2016.

The other big declines last month were south west of England, down 5.2 per cent, and Greater London, off 3.7 per cent, according to the lat- est data from the Springboard retailing consultancy.

This resulted in a Uk-wide footfall drop of 3.5 per cent, the biggest reduction since March 2013. The December UK monthly year-on-year figure was significantly below the three-month rolling average of -1.9 per cent and the twelve-month rolling average of -0.7 per cent.

Springboard said that of the three shopping locations, only Retail Parks saw two regions showing growth: south east of England (0.9 per cent) and West Midlands (0.1 per cent).