Centre for Cities: Recovery gathers pace as UK emerges from Covid-19 pandemic restrictions

Centre for Cities has published the latest data on its High Streets Recovery Tracker, up to the end of August.

The data suggests that footfall in all of the UK’s largest cities and towns is now recovering as the UK emerges from pandemic restrictions.

Some key findings from the latest data:

• By the end of August, average footfall in the centre of the UK’s largest cities and towns reached 64% of pre-Covid levels – up from 53% at the end of July.
• Footfall was highest in seaside resorts and other tourist destinations. It exceeded pre-Covid levels in Blackpool, Bournemouth and Southend and came close in Brighton, York and Edinburgh.
• Reading saw a 41 percentage point increase in footfall between the end of July and the end of August – the biggest increase in the country. This is likely to do be due to Reading Festival.
• The increase in footfall that places saw in August was driven by evening and weekend leisure visitors rather than workers. Worker footfall remained low throughout the summer
• Overall footfall in central London and the centres of other large cities also remained low throughout the summer – both compared to other cities and compared to pre-pandemic. In central London overall footfall at the end of August was just 43% of pre-pandemic levels. On the weekend it was higher, at 67%, but still trailing smaller cities.

Where did city centre footfall increase the most in August?
Increased the most	Increased the least
Rank	City	August footfall increase (percentage point)	Last week of August footfall level (% of pre-Covid)	Rank	City	August footfall increase	Last week of August footfall level (% of pre-Covid)
1	Reading	41	95	1	Mansfield	1	77
2	Blackpool	40	160	2	Portsmouth	2	68
3	Southend	30	123	3	Sheffield	3	57
4	Edinburgh	27	94	4	Northampton	3	64
5	Bournemouth	24	123	5	Slough	3	62

You can explore the all the data for the 63 largest cities and towns on our interactive tracker.

Centre for Cities publishes footfall and spending data on a monthly basis. The next release will be published in mid-October and cover the full month of September.