High street footfall down on last year

The number of high street shoppers has remained below levels for the comparable period last year. There have been 7.6 per cent fewer people visiting stores than in the week ended October 1 last year.

However, the Retail FootFall Index, published by data company Experian, showed a week on week improvement of 4.8 per cent.

FootFall spokeswoman Natasha Burton blamed the continued poor year on year figures on the rise in interest rates in August to 4.75 per cent.

She said: 'The changes in consumer behaviour following an interest rate rise filter straight down to the high street. We are now witnessing severe drops in shopper numbers compared to last year and while the year on year decrease of 7.6 per cent saw the year on year gap shorten, it is still a worrying time for retailers.'

The footfall figures for department stores reflected similar trends with year-on-year footfall down 9.3 per cent, but up 5.4 per cent on a week on week basis.