The whole of England was placed in full lockdown from Midnight on Monday the 4th of January 2021. Apart from Monday, the remainder of the week saw all non-essential stores closed. Consequently, the shopping centre index saw a drop of -41% in visitors compared to the previous week.
When comparing the week to the same week in 2020, we see a drop of -80.1%. In some respects, the week on week decrease would have been bigger had it not been that the South East of the UK and many other areas were already in Tier 4 the previous week. In contrast, areas such as Yorkshire and the North were in Tier 3, so many retailers were still open. It’s clear from the regional data which areas were still in tier 3 in week 53, with the South East seeing the smallest decreases.
Compared to last year we see an increase in the deficit to -80.1%, up from -70.4% last week.
The second week of January
With all regions in lockdown during the week commencing the 11th of January, footfall in shopping centres across the United Kingdom saw another week-on-week decline. However, the decrease was significantly lower than last week, down -4.1%, compared to a -41% drop the previous week. The worst-hit region was the South West, down -31.3% compared with last week. The second worst-hit region was Yorkshire, which was down -18.9% compared to the first week of 2021. Yorkshire saw heavy snowfall on Thursday causing traffic disruption.
When we compare this week with the same week in 2020, we see a decline of -80.9% in footfall in shopping centres. This is a slight increase in the deficit from -80.1% last week.
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