Pre-Christmas shopping down 3.3%

The number of shoppers visiting the UK’s high street has fallen in the crucial pre-Christmas

period, according to new research.

Customer numbers fell 3.3pc last week compared with the same time a year ago, according to research undertaken by Experian Footfall and released to The Sunday Telegraph.

The numbers come after two months of almost uniformly poor data from the high street. Last week ended with a profit warning from Blacks Leisure and Sir Philip Green announcing store closure for Arcadia's loss-making shops.

Separate figures from Springboard, which analyses footfall for the British Retail Consortium, calculates that sales in Greater London fell 7.5pc in the third week of November, compared with last year.