The UK Cities with the Biggest Heart for the High Street

Online shopping is now more popular than ever, and it’s taking a toll on our high streets. 2021 saw nearly 50 shops shut per day on the British high street, and this number is only likely to increase as ordering online becomes more and more accessible.

Despite this, almost half of UK consumers said that they still prefer to shop in-person if they have the choice. But which cities around the country really have the biggest heart for the high street?

To find out, Small Business Prices analysed the 30 most populous cities in the UK by investigating their high street shopping habits. We looked at metrics including the level of high street spending, high street footfall and the number of retail addresses to reveal which cities are most inclined to do their shopping in-store rather than online.

Liverpool shows the most appreciation for the high street overall

Rank	City	Vacant high street services (%)	Level of high street spending	High street footfall (weekdays)	High street footfall (weekends)	Net change in number of shops 2022 (REGIONAL)	Number of retail addresses on the high street	High street population as a share of total local authority population
1	Liverpool	12	134	106	118	-71	26.6	33.5
2	Plymouth	19	127	176	186	-177	22.7	11.1
3	Southend-on-Sea	25	129	127	154	-136	30	38.5
4	Swansea	23	131	121	138	-100	29.2	12.6
5	Manchester	15	120	88	125	-71	30.5	25.8
6	Newcastle upon Tyne	20	122	120	119	-71	33.1	19.3
7	Norwich	16	117	112	142	-136	31.4	18.3
8	Brighton	10	126	101	120	-260	26.9	34.8
9	Bristol	17	117	101	118	-177	30	32.4
10	Sheffield	28	133	90	116	-174	40.1	24.1
11	Derby	23	115	109	116	-136	42.8	14.7
12	Glasgow City	19	123	89	135	-180	23.3	24.9
13	Leeds	20	116	96	118	-174	39.9	16.9
14	Cardiff	20	116	96	118	-100	28.1	20.2
15	Nottingham	17	112	101	110	-136	29.4	26

Our research revealed Liverpool as the UK city still holding on to the high street the most, scoring highly across all metrics we analysed. This North-Western city performed particularly well for high street spending, receiving an excellent score of 134 (compared to a pre-lockdown baseline of 100) which was higher than any other city on the list.

Liverpool also fared much better than the majority of other cities in the UK when it comes to the number of vacant high street services, with only 12% of its high street stores standing empty.

In second place is Plymouth, which scored a slightly worse 19% for the number of vacant high street services, and also received a lower score than Liverpool for level of high street spending (127). Southend-on-Sea came in third overall, though it actually beat both Liverpool and Plymouth for number of high street shops (30).

Coventry, Reading and Birmingham rank bottom of the list overall

Rank	City	Vacant high street services (%)	Level of high street spending	High street footfall (weekdays)	High street footfall (weekends)	Net change in number of shops 2022 (REGIONAL)	Number of retail addresses on the high street	High street population as a share of total local authority population
29	Coventry	16	104	81	94	-250	28.3	19.3
28	Reading	18	106	85	105	-260	29.9	20.9
27	Birmingham	18	105	81	108	-250	29.9	22.4
26	Aberdeen	20	106	113	117	-180	20.5	16.5
25	Northampton	25	107	107	115	-136	30	11.6
24	London	13	101	59	87	-389	45.1	81.8
23	Swindon	21	115	101	111	-177	34.5	9
22	Leicester	22	107	94	107	-136	33.2	31.6
21	Edinburgh	10	102	100	135	-180	14.5	18.9
20	Southampton	11	105	108	127	-260	26.6	22.1

Our ranking revealed Coventry as the UK city with the least appreciation for the high street, followed by Reading and fellow Midlands city Birmingham. The West Midlands experienced the third largest decline in the number of high street shops in 2023, with a net loss of -250 that contributed to the overall low score received by Coventry and Birmingham.

All three cities also scored poorly for high street footfall, with Coventry seeing the lowest amount after London (81 on weekdays and 94 on weekends) and Birmingham performing slightly better on weekends only (108). The level of high street spending was similarly poor for these cities, which isn’t surprising given the low footfall.

High street footfall is the highest in Plymouth

Rank	City	Region	High street footfall (weekdays)	High street footfall (weekends)
1	Plymouth	South West	176	186
2	Southend-on-Sea	East Midlands	127	154
3	Swansea	Wales	121	138
4	Stoke-on-Trent	West Midlands	121	118
5	Newcastle upon Tyne	North East	120	119

Plymouth, which came in second place overall for high street shopping, topped the list when it comes to high street footfall. This coastal city logged the highest footfall on both weekdays and weekends, receiving a score of 176 and 186 for each respectively. This is compared to a pre-lockdown baseline of 100, suggesting that Plymouth has actually seen an increase in the number of high street visitors since the end of lockdown.

This was followed by Southend-on-Sea, which recorded the second highest footfall across the week (with a score of 127 on weekdays and 154 on weekends), and Swansea with the third highest (121 on weekdays and 138 on weekends).

Meanwhile, London saw the fewest number of feet hitting the high street in comparison to pre-lockdown levels, scoring just 59 on weekdays and 87 at the weekend.

Stoke-on-Trent has the most shops on the high street

Rank	City	Region	Number of retail addresses on the high street
1	Stoke-on-Trent	West Midlands	52.6
2	London	Greater London	45.1
3	Derby	East Midlands	42.8
4	Sheffield	Yorkshire and the Humber	40.1
5	Leeds	Yorkshire and the Humber	39.9

Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands officially has the largest number of retail outlets on the high street at 53, beating London by a fairly wide margin despite being a much smaller city. However, although it has the most shops overall, Stoke-on-Trent also recorded the highest percentage of vacant high street services with nearly 30% of its shops currently unoccupied.

London scored the second highest number of retail outlets (45), despite performing poorly in the overall ranking. The capital’s large number of shops 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. Although London still has plenty of high street stores to offer, it seems this isn’t enough to tempt people to pay them a visit.

The North of England experienced the smallest net decrease in number of high street shops in 2023

Rank	City	Region	Net change in number of shops 2022 (REGIONAL)
1	Newcastle upon Tyne	North East	-71
2	Liverpool	North West	-71
3	Manchester	North West	-71
4	Swansea	Wales	-100
5	Cardiff	Wales	-100

Though all regions of the UK experienced a decline in the number of high street shops open in the first half of 2022, some regions saw slightly less of a decrease than others. According to our analysis, the North East and North West experienced the smallest decline in the number of shops with a net change of -71, followed by Wales with -100.

On the other end of the spectrum, London and the South East experienced the biggest decrease in the number of high street shops. London saw a decrease of -389, and the South East experienced a net loss of -260.

Overall, although most cities are seeing a continual decline in both the number of high street shops and customers visiting them, apparently not everyone is quite ready to let go of the in-person shopping experience just yet. With new shops continuing to open around the country despite frequent closures, it seems many Brits do still have a heart for the high street.

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Methodology

Small Business Prices analysed the 30 most populous cities in the UK according to the following metrics: % of vacant high street services, level of high street spending, high street footfall, net change in number of shops, number of retail addresses on the high street and high street population as a share of total local authority population. Each city was then given an overall index score based on these metrics, allowing us to create a ranking.

Sources

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