Britain's high streets have suffered their biggest drop in shopper numbers for more than a year, according to a report that indicates a slow start to the festive retail season.
The British Retail Consortium's latest numbers also showed a drop in footfall for out-of-town shops and for shopping centres, echoing sales data that has pointed to a tentative mood among Christmas shoppers.(Store Fixture)
The BRC's figures, supplied by Springboard, revealed a 3.4% annual drop in footfall for high streets from September to November, the sharpest fall since August 2012.
For November alone, footfall was down 2.9% on a year ago across all shop(Store FIxture) types. This matched October's drop and was largely caused by a 4.2% fall in high-street shoppers. All regions reported a decline in footfall, and the steepest drop was in the West Midlands.
Helen Dickinson, BRC's director general, said the November fall "tallies with recent signs in our sales data that festive spending has got off to a slow but steady start".
She added: "While some areas saw an improvement in footfall compared with the previous month, numbers were negative across the board, strengthening the sense that many of us were holding off on major shopping(Strore Fixture) trips until December ushered in the final countdown to Christmas."
A separate report released on Monday underlines the pressures being felt by households as wages fail to keep pace with inflation.
The latest Household Finance Index from data company Markit showed people felt their financial wellbeing had deteriorated but that they were more upbeat about the future.
Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit, said: "December's survey suggests that a rising proportion of UK households are hopeful that the squeeze on their finances will begin to subside during 2014.
"However, while job insecurities have receded this year, the latest survey highlights that income and saving trends remain very subdued, especially at the lower end of the pay spectrum."
Businesses(Store Fixture) are also feeling more upbeat about the year ahead as the recovery gathers steam, according to a report from the the Federation of Small Businesses.
It says firms remain positive about the economic outlook, want to expand and are finding it a little easier to access finance.
John Allan, national chairman at the FSB, said: "Confidence has been in positive territory for a full year, giving economic growth solid foundations moving into 2014. Small firms are creating more jobs and investing in their business."
