UK High Streets & Town Centres – Week 18, 2025 Performance Update: Insights from Location Analytics

The latest update from The Benchmark harnesses the power of location analytics to present a balanced picture of UK High Streets and Town Centres performance during Week 18. While overall activity recorded a mean daily footfall of 30,700—a minor decline compared to the previous week—the year-on-year figures are encouraging with a 1.1% increase, underscoring longer-term resilience in visitor behaviour and retail recovery.

In regional performance, Scotland emerged with a daily footfall of 25,400, demonstrating a slight week-on-week gain and a stronger annual improvement than the overall UK trend. England, on the other hand, reported a higher average daily count of 31,400 but experienced a decline relative to the previous week, with only modest long-term improvement. Wales presented a unique scenario where a sharp increase in daily footfall points to robust long-term recovery, despite minimal weekly changes.

Dwell time metrics add another layer of insight into visit quality. Across the UK, visitors spent an average of 98 minutes per visit, reflecting a slight contraction week-over-week but benefiting from a healthy year-on-year increase. England mirrored these trends, recording nearly identical visit durations with steady improvement over time. However, Scotland and Wales saw reductions in average visit lengths; Scotland experienced declines both on a weekly and annual basis, while Wales maintained lower dwell times compared to the previous year during this period.

Industry voices have taken note of the data trends, and Joe Capocci from Huq Industries remarked, "The data reveals the most striking change in Wales, where a sharp increase in daily footfall is evident, a trend subtly echoed in recent retail industry news." This industry comment underscores the shifting dynamics across regions and sets the stage for further analysis in the evolving retail landscape across the UK.

Media: For all media and press enquiries, please contact media@huq.io