Home Counties Shun Commute Resulting in Local Retail Booming
7th July 2021
Andover leads Home Counties shunning the daily commute as local retailers reap the benefits
New analysis has shown that Andover in Hampshire has recorded the fewest proportion of residents returning to work in Central London of any major town within 60 miles of the capital. Daily trips into the capital from the town remain at just 14% of pre-pandemic levels.
However, it has also seen a considerable resurgence in visits to local retailers and leisure outlets: now at nearly half (46%) of pre-Covid levels, against an average across the entire Commuter Belt of 31%.
Many of the other towns seeing low take-up on the daily commute, have seen similar upticks in visits to local shops and services. The number of London commuters from Basingstoke (also in Hampshire) remains at 22% of pre-Covid levels, but local retail and leisure usage is back to 44% of pre-pandemic levels.
Similarly, Haslemere in Surrey stands currently at 25% of historic commuting levels, but visits to local shops, cafes and cinemas is back to 42% of where it stood before the first lockdown.
The research was carried out by Huq Industries, a mobility research business, using Community Vision, its product for use by local councils to support decision-making around the future of our cities, towns and high streets.
Huq’s extensive dataset of real-time population mobility data, comprised of 1bn+ mobile geo-location data-points daily, is used by retailers, investors and the public sector to measure footfall across a range of consumer, business and industrial settings.
The top 10 major towns and cities close to London that show the slowest return to commuting, five of which are seeing local retail/leisure footfall outpacing the norm, are:
1. Andover, Hampshire - 13.9%
2. Farnborough, Hampshire - 17.6%
3. Reading, Berkshire - 17.8%
4. Shefford, Bedfordshire - 18.2%
5. Godalming, Surrey - 20.7%
6. Basingstoke, Hampshire - 22.2%
7. Hastings, East Sussex - 22.8%
8. Folkestone, Kent - 22.9%
9. Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire - 23.3%
10. Haslemere, Surrey - 24.9%
Overall, Berkshire is the Home County that has seen the fewest number of returning commuters: journeys are now at only just over a quarter (27%) of pre-Covid levels, followed by Buckinghamshire at 38% and Surrey at 44%.
Conrad Poulson, chief executive officer at Huq Industries, comments: “With so many firms moving to virtual and hybrid working models, it may take months for commuter trips from the Home Counties to London to reach anything close to pre-pandemic levels – or more likely, it may never get back there at all.
“Instead, a new pattern is emerging. It seems the displacement of affluent Home Counties commuters from Central London to their home offices is having a positive impact on local communities. The significance of this trend is far-reaching. It affects the way in which large cities like London are used - from retail and hospitality, to transport and real-estate. If even only some of these new behaviours take hold there will be large scale changes in how these cities operate and evolve.”
* This data represents change in journeys into the capital from towns over 10,000 residents located within 60 miles of Greater London. Current values are the mean of the 7 days to 2021-06-28 inclusive.
ENDS
For further information
Tom Ingoldby, Velvet PR, 07825 814 634 - tom@velvetpr.biz
About Huq Industries
Huq provides high-street footfall analytics to councils, BIDs, LEPs and policy-makers to help support economic development objectives. Our market-leading footfall measurement solutions provide a daily measure of footfall across high streets and town centers and the ability to segment trends using census demographics.
Community Vision, Huq’s intuitive reporting tool, provides users with the ability to visualise footfall density across high streets and centers along with dynamic catchment area maps. Our platform is built for measurement accuracy and is compliant with the ERDF Re-opening the High Street Safely fund, the Welcome Back initiative and other grant financing.