Shopper footfall increases but growth weakens, figures show

The number of shoppers at Scotland’s stores has increased, with tourists over Easter helping to provide a surge in footfall in Edinburgh, figures show.

Footfall north of the border rose 7.7% in April compared to the same month last year, the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) said on Friday.

Its data shows that in Edinburgh, shoppers increased by 29.4% last month compared to April 2022, which made it the top performing city in the UK.

London, in second place, saw a 10% year-on-year rise in footfall in April.

In Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, footfall rose 3.3% in April compared to the same month last year. Meanwhile shopping centre visitors in April rose by 5.5%.

Mr Lonsdale warned that while there is “a little sunlight for retailers in these figures, there is a risk of a false dawn”.

He added: “The pace of growth last month slackened and was at its weakest level since last October, while Scottish foot-traffic was almost 16% down on pre-pandemic levels, underlining the protracted nature of the challenges facing much of retail.”

There is “still much work to do” to get town and city centres back to their former levels of footfall, Mr Lonsdale said, adding that one option to spur greater levels of footfall and entice shoppers back is to bring forward from October the pilot scheme to remove peak-time rail fares.

“That may help to make town and city centres more accessible, and consequentially attractive, to visitors, workers, and shoppers,” he said.

While footfall increased in April compared to the year before, the rise was 4.3% weaker than in March, SRC said. Shopping centre footfall increases were 2.9% worse in April than the month before.

Scottish Conservative finance spokeswoman Liz Smith claimed retailers north of the border are at a “disadvantage” compared to those elsewhere in the UK.

She said: “In England and Wales, the UK Government is giving 75% rebates on business rates, but although the SNP Government has been given the funds to follow suit, they have chosen not to pass those on to firms in Scotland.

“Every area of public policy and spending depends on improving our growth and productivity, and Scotland is being hamstrung by the SNP’s anti-business stance.

“If Humza Yousaf is reviewing his programme for Government, he would do well to start with this, and give Scottish firms the support being offered elsewhere.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We welcome the rise in footfall, but recognise the enormous pressures facing businesses, and the Scottish Government has been engaging, directly and through key business organisations, to best understand their needs.

“The Scottish Government recently launched a New Deal for Scottish Business that will provide an opportunity to discuss how government can better support businesses using the limited policy levers available.

“We have also set out a strong non-domestic rates regime, delivering a freeze to the poundage and a reliefs package including the Small Business Bonus Scheme which provides over £95 million of relief to the retail sector, taking almost 29,000 shops out of rates altogether.

“Our retail strategy sets out how we will work with business and trade unions to deliver a strong retail sector, and contains specific actions to strengthen retail’s contribution to the economic and social success of our communities. This is in addition to the action we are taking to support our town and city centres, and help retailers and communities recover from the pandemic – not least through our City Centre Recovery Fund, the Town Centre Action Plan and Business Improvement Districts.”