Boost for Scotland’s retailers

Shoppers hit the Scottish high street in force last month, with a 4.4 per cent year-on-year jump in footfall, the highest regional figure for the UK.

Last month proved to be a shot of sunshine for many of Scotlands high streets. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

Meanwhile, the store vacancy rate in Scotland came in at 9.1 per cent, an improvement on the 10.7 per cent recorded previously, the latest Springboard/British Retail Consortium survey reveals.

Diane Wehrle, a director at Springboard, said the Commonwealth Games had helped underpin the rise in footfall, which compares with a 0.6 per cent dip across the UK as a whole – the fourth month in a row of declines.

She added: “It is high streets that benefited most with an increase in footfall of 6 per cent compared with just 1.6 per cent in shopping centres.

“Footfall to out-of-town locations rose by 4 per cent, which may well be a result of the displacement of local shoppers from town centres, where tourists dominated.”