Covid in Scotland: Shop footfall lags behind rest of UK

Scotland saw the steepest decline in shop footfall out of the four UK nations last month, according to retail industry figures.

The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) found shopper numbers were down by nearly 5% from May, and by 29.9% on the same period two years ago.

The UK average decline over the two years was 27.6%.

SRC said the disparity may have been driven by the lag in relaxing Covid restrictions north of the border.

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Scottish shopping centres in particular continued to struggle to attract shoppers, with footfall more than a third (34.1%) below the 2019 figure.

Glasgow fared worse than any other Scottish city, with numbers down by more than 30% on June 2019.

SRC head of policy Ewan MacDonald-Russell said the latest data illustrated how far the retail industry was from recovering from the Covid crisis.

He said: "Whilst stores can trade, the restrictions on hospitality and office working continue to impact on visits to the high street.

"Operating stores itself remains challenging with capacity limits due to caps on the number of customers due to physical distancing rules."

Mr MacDonald-Russell also argued that there was a growing need for policy makers to consider how best to reignite consumer confidence.

He added: "Retailers will continue to work to attract customers but could be aided through clear messaging to encourage visits to town centres, short-term initiatives to allow free parking, or even a retail voucher scheme to encourage shoppers back to the high street as is planned in Northern Ireland."

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