Economic Activity And Social Change In The UK - Real-time Indicators

10th January 2025

Overall retail footfall decreased by 5% in the week to 5 January 2025 when compared with the previous week but increased by 5% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (MRI OnLocation).

High street and shopping centre footfall both decreased by 7% when compared with the previous week but increased by 6% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024. Retail park footfall increased by 1% when compared with the previous week and increased by 4% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (MRI OnLocation).

In late December 2024, of the 23% of businesses that reported having at least one concern about their future supply chains, 44% reported that they expect to be affected by the increased costs of sourcing materials, up 8 percentage points from late September 2024; other concerns included increased transportation costs (31%) and increased labour costs (24%), up 3 and 8 percentage points, respectively, over the same period (final results from Wave 123 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey).

The System Average Price (SAP) of gas increased by 5% from 3.996 pence per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) to 4.207p/kWh in the week to 5 January 2025, when compared with the previous week; it also increased by 52% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024, which had a seven-day average price of 2.763p/kWh (National Gas Transmission).

The System Price of electricity decreased by 11% from 9.638p/kWh to 8.533p/kWh when compared with the previous week, but increased by 20% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024, which had a seven-day average price of 7.139p/kWh (Elexon).

The number of ship visits to major UK ports increased by 18% in the week to 5 January 2025, when compared with the previous week, but decreased by 14% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024; the number of UK flights increased by 11% week-on-week and increased by 2% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (exactEarth, EUROCONTROL).

Read the full ONS report HERE