{"id":52377,"date":"2025-08-08T09:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T09:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/52377\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T09:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T09:48:07","slug":"july-fails-to-bring-summer-boost-for-high-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/52377\/","title":{"rendered":"July fails to bring summer boost for high streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tFriday 08 August 2025 6:00 am
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThursday 07 August 2025 3:54 pm\n\t<\/p>\n

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\"\"\t\tTotal UK footfall decreased by 0.4 per cent in July\t<\/p>\n

Footfall on UK high streets fell again<\/a> in July as shoppers continued their slow move online, dashing retailers\u2019 hopes for a summer boost. <\/p>\n

Overall footfall<\/a> \u2013 which includes high streets, retail parks and shopping centres \u2013 fell 0.4 per cent in July, while high street footfall fell 1.7 per cent. <\/p>\n

Andy Sumpter, Retail Consultant EMEA for Sensormatic, said that UK footfall has remained \u201cstubbornly negative\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvents such as the Oasis tour have given local uplifts in traffic, only for it to slide away shortly after\u2026 one year into a new Labour government, consumer sentiment remains cautious,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Footfall in Manchester grew during the surveyed period, likely due to the presence of Oasis on five days in July, which boosted spend across retail and hospitality. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, footfall in London fell 0.5 per cent in July, after falling 2.7 per cent in June. <\/p>\n

\u201cJuly failed to bring about the summer boost in shoppers many retailers had hoped for. Instead,\u00a0footfall\u00a0dipped in July for the second consecutive year,\u201d Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tFirst-time buyer demand for furniture and the \u2018lipstick effect\u2019 boost June sales<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers want a vibrant shopping destination, but with around one in seven shops lying empty, more needs to be done to turn town and city centres into places people want to visit,\u201d Dickinson said. <\/p>\n

Around 10 per cent of retail jobs have been lost in the last decade, with another one in ten set to be lost by 2027. <\/p>\n

The number of retail job vacancies has fallen by 39 per cent year on year,\u00a0according to Adzuna\u2019s latest jobs report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Structural issues for high streets \u2013 like the move to online shopping \u2013 have been compounded by high taxes and a consumer move to experiences over goods. <\/p>\n

Shops have been particularly incensed by high business rates, which are charged on licensed premises, saying they put high streets at a disadvantage to online-only business, which only have to pay business rates on their warehouses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile government\u2019s plan to reduce business rates for most Retail, Hospitality and Leisure premises is a step in the right direction, only a substantial cut will truly benefit communities nationwide and help bring thousands of empty shops back into use. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany smaller shops and businesses rely on larger anchor stores to attract\u00a0footfall\u00a0so the upcoming reforms must also ensure no store pays more, or risk seeing many larger stores close their doors or raise their prices,\u201d Dickinson added. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n

\t\t\tUK retail sales bounce back as Brits enjoyed warmest June on record<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\tPeople & Organisations\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday 08 August 2025 6:00 am \u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0 Thursday 07 August 2025 3:54 pm Share Facebook Share on Facebook…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-52377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}