SCOTTISH TOWNS LEADING UK HIGH STREET RECOVERY
Scottish spending power is fuelling strong high street growth, while other UK towns and cities lag behind, according to new data on high street spending.
The insights, from takepayments’ bi-annual research into high street spending have revealed how high streets across the country are continuing to navigate their Covid recovery. Interestingly, the top three places showing the strongest year-on-year growth are Kirkwall (22%), Inverness (10%) and Paisley (7%), a sure sign of confidence for retailers in Scotland
Across the board it is the smaller UK outliers which are outpacing the rest of the UK in terms of growth in high street spending.
Despite Kirkwall seeing the most significant rise in spending with a 22% increase year-on-year, it has dipped by 3% over the past few months. Second place Inverness has seen similar challenges over the last six months.
While things are looking up in the Highlands and Islands, the Western Isles have seen a significant drop in spending across the UK. A reported decrease of 33% year-on-year has been observed, but the past six months have seen a slightly more promising result with -16%.
The research also indicates the travel industry is leading the way when it comes to increased consumer spending, where spending is up by 37% year-on-year. Combined with VisitBritain’s predictions that inbound tourism spending is expected to increase by 59% to £6.9bn in 20221, these figures will be another welcome sign of growth for UK tourism.
While spending on recruitment has fallen 30% year-on-year, this industry is now showing slow but steady signs of growth, having increased by 2% in the past six months. Hospitality challenges continue with consumer spending has fallen 10% year-on-year the sector has failed to show any sign of growth over the past six months.
Sandra Rowley, Head of Marketing, shares what these latest findings could mean for the UK high street: “Consumer spending is firmly in the spotlight at the moment amid the current cost of living crisis. Naturally, spending is down year-on-year as millions are cutting back to save money where they can. It comes as no surprise in that case that our report found overall spending is down 1% year-on-year and 3% over the past six months.
While things are back to some sense of normality, the after-effects of lockdowns and restrictions are likely to be felt for a long time to come Workers continue to reduce the amount of time spent in offices, for example, which means less footfall through busy city centres. This goes some way towards explaining why smaller towns and cities are outpacing the giants when it comes to spending power.”She added: “There are certainly some promising green shoots of recovery, with travel being the most prominent. We’ll be watching these trends closely over the coming months as businesses and consumers continue to navigate this challenging period.”
