Footfall plummeted across the UK in the week marred by far-right riots in English cities

While much of the rioting has been confined to cities in England, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland, data from Sensormatic showed footfall was down across much of the UK last week due to the unrest.

The data shows that when the rioting began on Tuesday, footfall was down “comprehensively” across all regions and nations.

On Saturday, when the rioting was at its most violent, footfall in areas worst affected dropped significantly. In Manchester, footfall was down 17.5%; Bristol fell 13.4%; Belfast dropped 6.4%; and the North West region saw footfall down 5.6%.

England as a whole experienced a 1.9% dip in footfall over the weekend, despite areas like London, the South East and East of England all experiencing slight upticks.

Retail and destinations insights expert Diane Wehrle said the rioting will have affected retailers’ sales for the period and could also lead to longer-term harm for many struggling regional high streets and town centres.

She said: “The fundamental issue for retail is that it undermines consumer confidence, just at a time when it was starting to inch back up.

“It makes people feel vulnerable, so they don’t want to risk going into a town or a city centre for fear they might end up caught in the middle of something like a riot.

“Unless this unrest is quelled quickly, it does run the risk of undermining retail during what should otherwise be quite a strong period, with the school holidays and people taking time off work and going away.”

On Monday, Plymouth became the latest city to experience violence in what the mayor of the city described as the “latest stop on this racist summer tour”.

Wehrle warned that the rioting is likely to have a deleterious effect on vital tourism spending.

India, Australia, Nigeria, Malaysia and Indonesia have issued safety warnings to citizens travelling to the UK due to the riots.

Wehrle said: “It’s not good optics internationally. It’s all over social media and many people abroad will think that the whole of the country is up in flames, which in turn impacts sentiment and confidence.

“If people have booked flights and holidays already, they’re likely to still come because they’ve put money into it and can’t get it back. But, if people have yet to book those flights but have been thinking about it, they’re much less likely to want to holiday in the UK now because of this. That’s going to affect London and, in turn, the whole country.”

Yesterday, Retail Week reported that the British Retail Consortium is set to chair an emergency meeting for members this week, amid fears the rioting and looting will stretch on into a second week. 

Health and beauty retailer Lush this morning issued a statement saying its staff were “heartbroken” after one of the retailer’s stores in Hull was ransacked. 

Around 400 people have already been arrested with home secretary Yvette Cooper saying there will “swift justice” for all those involved in the unrest.