Liverpool and Coventry are most and least popular UK high streets

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Nov 7, 2022

Liverpool is thriving in terms of consumer support and appreciation. The North West city is “still holding on to the high street the most”, with consumers doing more high street spending than anywhere else in the UK, according to a survey by Small Business Prices.

The city, which is home to the successful Liverpool One mall, has received a spending score of 134 (compared to a pre-lockdown baseline of 100) which was higher than any other city on a list of 30. It also beat most other cities when it comes to the lowest number of vacant high street units (just 12%). 

Plymouth came in second place overall for a thriving high street, and topped the list when it comes to high street footfall. The coastal city logged the highest footfall on both weekdays and weekends, with a score of 176 and 186 for each, respectively (compared, again, to the pre-lockdown baseline of 100).  

This was followed by Southend-on-Sea, which recorded the second-highest footfall across the week, and Swansea with the third-highest, followed by Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Brighton, Bristol and Sheffield in the top 10.

Meanwhile, Coventry is revealed as the UK city with the lowest high street appreciation, followed by Reading and Birmingham. All three cities scored poorly for high street spending, “which isn’t surprising considering they also saw some of the lowest high street footfall in the country”, the report noted. 

And while Liverpool reigns supreme, the report also showed the North East and the North West of England have also been the best at retaining stores. Both regions experienced a net decline of -71 in the number of high street stores so far in 2022, less than anywhere else in the UK. This was followed by Wales with -100, and the East Midlands with -136.

Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands officially has the largest number of retail outlets on its high street at 53, beating London by a wide margin, despite being a much smaller city. 

At the other end of the spectrum, London experienced the biggest decrease in the number of high street stores with a net loss of -389. 

London scored the second-highest number of retail addresses (45), despite performing poorly in the overall ranking. The report noted that “the capital’s large number of stores is most likely down to it being the UK’s biggest city, and is unfortunately let down by a very low level of high street spending and footfall in proportion to its population size”.