High street shopper numbers keep falling

Footfall continued to drop across Scottish high streets and shopping centres last month, according to a report.

There was an overall 3.6 per cent decline in October, above the three-month average of 2.5 per cent.

Despite a 7.5 per cent decline in shopper numbers on the high street and a 1.3 per cent fall in shopping centres, there was a 2.4 per cent increase in footfall at retail parks, the fastest rate of growth since August 2017.

The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Springboard monitor also found the town centre vacancy rate for Scotland was 11.1 per cent in October, an increase from 10.8 per cent in July and above the average vacancy rate for the UK at 9.6 per cent.

Last week a report found an “acceleration” in retail closures across Scotland.