Fed-up Britons Returning To Shops Despite Lockdown And ‘Beast from the East'

The number of people heading out to shops across Britain increased by 1.5% last week from the previous week, a fourth straight week of rises, indicating that Britons are increasingly tiring of lockdown, industry data showed on Monday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered England into a new national lockdown on 4 January to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases that threatened to overwhelm parts of the health system.

Under the rules in England, schools are closed to most pupils, people should work from home if possible, and all hospitality and non-essential shops are closed. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have imposed similar measures.

Essential shops allowed to stay open include food outlets and home improvement retailers.

Market researcher Springboard said that while footfall in high streets declined by 1.7% in the week to 13 February versus the previous week, there were rises of 3.9% in shopping centres and 6.1% in retail parks.

Despite the week-on-week rise, Springboard said footfall was still 61.4% lower than in the same week last year.

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