Eat Out to Help Out boosts visitors to seaside towns…

Eat Out to Help Out boosts visitors to seaside towns but bigger cities struggle as workers stay home

Seaside towns are benefiting the most from the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme, new research from a think tank has found.

Bournemouth saw the biggest boost to visitor numbers on Monday to Wednesday evenings in early August, according to the Centre for Cities High Street Recovery Tracker.

Footfall in the coastal town rose 23 percentage points - the most of any city or town in the UK.

Southend ranked second on the list, rising 22 percentage points, while Blackpool also benefited, with an increase of 18.

But the tracker, which used mobile phone data, found the scheme had been less effective in large cities, such as London and Manchester.

In the capital, the number of city centre visitors on Eat Out to Help Out nights was just three percentage points higher than the same nights in late July – one of the lowest increases in the UK.

According to Centre for Cities, a reduction in office workers in city centres could be to blame.

The think tank found the number of workers heading back to the office had increased in fewer than half of the UK’s biggest city and town centres.

In central London and Manchester, overall early August weekday footfall (including days outside the scheme) rose by just one percentage point compared to the early July.

Meanwhile, Leeds, Bristol and Nottingham saw no change and in Birmingham the number of workers has fallen.

Centre for Cities’ chief executive Andrew Carter said shops, restaurants and pubs “face an uncertain future” while office workers remained at home.

"A question mark remains over whether the footfall increase that we have seen this summer can be sustained into the autumn without the good weather and Government incentive – particularly with so many people still working from home,” he said.

“The Government must set out how it will support the people working in city centre retail and hospitality who could well find themselves out of a job by Christmas.”

The British Beer & Pub Association, which represents brewers and pubs, is urging the Government to extend the scheme, which it said was “a great success” for many of its members.

Chief executive Emma McClarkin said: “It has provided a much-needed boost to sales in the early week for some of our sector as it tries to recover.

“That boost to the pub and wider hospitality sector – amongst the largest employers in the UK – is much needed and will help secure jobs and build consumer confidence.

“Repeating the scheme, particularly as we approach quieter months for trade, would be a significant help.”