Telford among top 10 in country for footfall increase since reopening of non-essential shops
Telford has been named as one of the top 10 English cities and large towns that have seen the biggest increase in high street footfall since non-essential shops reopened.
Telford has been ranked third behind Warrington and Hull, according to the latest visitor footfall data from Centre for Cities’ High Street Recovery Tracker.
Meanwhile, Aldershot, Birkenhead and London make up the top three cities and large towns that have seen the smallest increase in high street footfall.
Glynn Morrow, manager of Telford Centre, said: “This latest data is great news and reflects what we are seeing on the ground. It illustrates how the right investment can transform a local high street into a regional shopping and leisure destination.
"The £50 million investment by Orion Capital Managers targeted bigger, better stores and large scale refurbishment which has resulted in a strong fashion offer.
"Fashion quarter brands including River Island, Zara, Next, H&M, Superdry, Primark, Skechers and JD Sports have driven a large amount of our reopening footfall and shopper spend.”
Data comparing visitor footfall on the week commencing June 15 – when non-essential shops reopened – with the previous week, shows that London, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle and Liverpool are among the cities that have seen some of the smallest bounces in footfall since non-essential shops opened.
This reinforces Centre for Cities’ concerns about the future of local services such as shops and restaurants in larger city centres if significant numbers of office workers continue to work from home.
While Aldershot’s rise appears to be the smallest, earlier data shows that it saw a very strong recovery in footfall in late May.
Conversely, smaller cities such as Warrington, Hull and Bournemouth have seen faster recoveries in footfall over the course of June. In Bournemouth, the recovery in footfall is also likely to be helped by good weather and people going to the beach.
The faster recovery that smaller cities are seeing is likely to be due to the concentration of shops and jobs in a single city centre, unlike in places such as London or Manchester, where multiple neighbourhood hubs are spread across the city-region.
