High Street in decline

There can be little argument that Rochdale town centre is having a very tough time, the current economic climate allied to the delay in choosing a developer for the regeneration project has led to shops and stores closing and a seeming exodus of shoppers.

However, the latest 'National High Street Index' shows that Rochdale town centre's decline is far from unique, though footfall in high streets remained at last year's levels in March and April, the overall decline has continued into June, with a year on year decrease of 7.7% from June 2008.

The pressure on the high street is reflected in retail sales: whilst the BRC reported a overall sales increase in June of +1.4% on a like for like basis, this disguised negative like for like sales for non-food. Indeed, the differential between the performance of food and non-food sales is shown in the BRC 3 month weighted average, with a like for like increase in food sales of 5.4% between April and June compared with a like for like decrease of 0.7% in non-food sales over the same three month period.

Moreover, it seems that as customers stay away from high streets, regional cities are being hit even harder than towns and cities generally. While in June there was a year on year decrease of 7.7% in high streets nationally, in regional cities footfall declined by 12.1% in June; an acceleration of the 4.3% national decline in footfall reported in May and the 10.5% decline in footfall in May in our regional cities.