The number of people visiting shops in August was up on the previous month as warmer weather and summer discounting drew in customers, even after the riots kept people away from the high street at the start of the month.
Monthly figures from the British Retail Consortium show a 0.4 per cent monthly drop in customer numbers volumes in August year-on-year, compared with the 3.3 per cent decline recorded in July and with overall shopper traffic at its highest year-on-year level since July 2023.
The industry group said the the worst social unrest in years, led by far-right rioters in cities across England and Northern Ireland at the start of the month, had “severely impacted” the retail sector. “Retail parks saw footfall levels rise in the week following the riots as some continued to avoid high streets and shopping centres,” Helen Dickinson, its chief executive, said.
Dickinson said shoppers began to return to “all destinations towards the end of the month when warmer weather and summer sales prompted shoppers to browse their favourite stores”.
The rioting began in Southport on July 30 and spread across towns and cities until August 5, with businesses, mosques and police forces targeted. Businesses on high streets were boarded up and forced to close in parts of London and the Midlands, but the true economic cost of the social unrest has not been calculated.
“Retailers will be hoping that the resilience seen in August, with footfall tantalisingly close to returning a positive year-on-year performance, will lead to longer-term growth for store traffic,” Andy Sumpter, a retail consultant at Sensormatic Solutions, said.
Overall consumer spending remains below pre-pandemic levels as people have battled with rising inflation and interest rates.
Dickinson urged the Labour government “to implement its high streets plan to help to drive footfall back into growth. The upcoming budget is an opportunity to move forward with the plan to fix the broken business rates system, which acts as a brake on retail investment and contributes to our declining high streets as it leads to so many store closures up and down the country.”