Stock image: Shoppers wearing face masks on Oxford Street, in central London
(Picture: PA Wire)The West End will bounce back strongly from two years of Covid lockdowns and restrictions with spending expected to match pre-pandemic levels by 2024, according to a report published on Thursday.
Shoppers and diners are forecast to spend £8.6 billion in Central London’s retail and entertainment district this year, almost double the £4.6 billion of 2021. That, in turn, was a 30 per cent recovery from 2020.
The study from consultants Colliers predicts that West End spending will match its pre-pandemic level of £10 billion “within the next two years” after the recovery is “turbo-charged” by the opening of the Elizabeth line.
By 2025 it will reach £11.4 billion, 14 per cent above the turnover of 2019.
The projections come as the West End steadily recovers from the Plan B setback over Christmas which wreaked havoc with the peak shopping and party season.
The area has lost billions of pounds since Covid first began hitting the headlines in February 2020.
Since then there have been three full lockdowns that reduced the West End to a “ghost town” as well as multiple restrictions on trading.
But footfall has recovered strongly since the Plan B measures were lifted on January 27, particularly at the weekends. Spending by domestic visitors has been the fastest to recover.
But areas most heavily dependent on foreign tourists, such as Regent Street, Bond Street and Mayfair, have yet to see a strong upturn, with 2021 sales reaching on average only a third of those achieved in 2019.
Jace Tyrrell, chief executive of New West End Company, which represents about 600 businesses, said: “Nearly two years on from the start of the pandemic and the road ahead for the West End looks promising, with the long-anticipated opening of the Elizabeth line set to turbo charge our recovery.
“Whilst it is heartening to see domestic customers filling our high streets with optimism once again and travel restrictions gradually disappearing, we can speed up the nation’s recovery greatly by incentivising high-spending tourists to return to our shores.”
Paddy Gamble, co-head of retail strategy at Colliers, said: “Areas with much greater reliance on tourists and international visitors will take longer to return to the levels of footfall and sales witnessed before the Covid lockdowns.”
NWEC is calling on the Government for more support to help draw overseas holidaymakers back to the UK.
On Wednesday, Sadiq Khan pledged to spend a further £10 million on promoting London to tourists.
