York’s retail picture combines strong recent city-centre activity with substantial differences between shopping districts and a clear reduction in vacant shops. The latest council figures record £35.5 million in city-centre sales in April 2025, while Parliament Street received 724,848 visitors that month. Historic council studies also provide longer-range context through retail capacity, employment and expenditure forecasts, but those older projections should not be read as current measurements.
Contents
- Latest city-centre sales
- Footfall in the central shopping area
- Performance by shopping district
- Vacancy and commercial mix
- Convenience-retail capacity forecasts
- Comparison retail and employment
Latest city-centre sales
York city-centre retail sales reached £35.5 million in April 2025. Across January to April 2025, sales reached £132 million. These figures come from the City of York Council’s Review of Parking Charges Cover report, which reports the periods explicitly rather than presenting them as a full-year total.
The April result was 3.7% higher than April 2024. On a year-to-date basis, January to April 2025 sales were 3.3% higher than the comparable January-to-April 2024 period. The two percentages describe different comparison windows: the first is one month, while the second covers the first four months of each year. City of York Council, Review of Parking Charges Cover report.
York can also be viewed through the York BID retail area, a different geography from the wider city-centre measure. The council’s Quarter 1 2025-26 Finance and Performance Monitor records £39.2 million in York BID retail-area sales in May 2025. That was 5.8% higher than May 2024. Because the areas and months differ, the BID figure should not be combined with the April city-centre figure as though they were one series. City of York Council, Item 9 - Quarter 1 2025-26 Finance and Performance Monitor - Annex 2.
For a limited comparison, the same council report says monthly retail sales increased 2% in Chester and 3.9% in Bath between April 2024 and April 2025. York’s 3.7% monthly increase was therefore above the cited Chester result and slightly below the cited Bath result. This is a comparison of reported percentage changes, not a ranking of total sales, since no matching total-sales figures are provided for those places.
| Measure | Period | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| York city-centre sales | April 2025 | £35.5 million |
| York city-centre sales | January-April 2025 | £132 million |
| York BID retail-area sales | May 2025 | £39.2 million |
| York city-centre monthly change | April 2024-April 2025 | +3.7% |
| York BID retail-area change | May 2024-May 2025 | +5.8% |
Footfall in the central shopping area
Parliament Street recorded 724,848 visitors in April 2025, compared with 563,406 in April 2024. The council reports this as a 28.7% increase year on year. These are visitor counts for Parliament Street, not a count of unique people and not a measure of spending.
The Easter-week breakdown shows that timing mattered. Parliament Street footfall was 38% higher year on year during Easter week 1 in 2025, and 19.2% higher year on year during Easter week 2. The supplied council reporting identifies the weeks as Easter week 1 and Easter week 2, so these figures should be kept separate from the full April comparison. City of York Council, Review of Parking Charges Cover report.
The BID monitor uses a different grouping and calendar. In the May 2025 British Retail Consortium month, Parliament Street and Micklegate together recorded 770,234 footfall counts. The comparable May 2024 BRC month recorded 752,325, while the comparable May 2023 BRC month recorded 734,448. The council notes that these BRC figures use complete Monday-to-Sunday weeks, so the BRC month is not necessarily identical to a calendar month.
Within the 770,234 May 2025 counts, Saturday accounted for 145,678, Friday for 121,132 and Sunday for 112,770. Those three day totals show the scale of weekend and late-week activity, but they do not represent all days: the remaining counts belong to the other days in the BRC-month series. City of York Council, Item 9 - Quarter 1 2025-26 Finance and Performance Monitor - Annex 2.
Performance by shopping district
The January-April 2025 comparison shows that York’s retail performance varied by district. Customer numbers increased 1% year on year at Bishopthorpe Road and 1% at Micklegate, while Heworth recorded a 12% increase. Transactions followed a different pattern: they rose 2% at Bishopthorpe Road, fell 11% at Micklegate and increased 4% in Heworth.
Sales increased in all three locations during the same comparison. Bishopthorpe Road recorded a 9% increase, Micklegate a 2% increase and Heworth a 12% increase. The combination of customer, transaction and sales measures is useful because it avoids treating one indicator as a complete description of local trading conditions.
| York shopping district | Customer numbers | Transactions | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bishopthorpe Road | +1% | +2% | +9% |
| Micklegate | +1% | -11% | +2% |
| Heworth | +12% | +4% | +12% |
These figures compare January-April 2025 with January-April 2024. They do not provide absolute customer totals, transaction totals or sales values for each district, so the percentages indicate direction and relative change within each district rather than district size. The source is the council’s Review of Parking Charges Cover report. City of York Council, Review of Parking Charges Cover report.
Vacancy and commercial mix
York’s latest reported city-centre vacancy figures point to fewer empty shops. There were 41 vacant city-centre shops at the end of March 2025, representing 6.52% of city-centre shops. The council reported 15 fewer vacant shops than at the end of March 2024.
The same source cites a national benchmark of 14% for vacant shops in 2023-24. York’s 6.52% at the end of March 2025 was below that benchmark, although the dates are not identical and the benchmark is described as the latest national comparison cited in the report. A further council measure puts York’s city-centre vacant-shop rate at 6.2% in Q2 2025-26, against a national benchmark of 13.7%. These should remain separate observations because they use different reporting periods and rates. City of York Council, Review of Parking Charges Cover report.
The composition of commercial space comes from an older council analysis reported in 2020. In that commercial-space comparison, retail accounted for 41% of York city-centre commercial space, offices for 28% and food and leisure for 9%. The report also gave a 7.03% city-centre vacancy rate. These figures describe the analysis reported in 2020 and are not a substitute for the March 2025 shop count or the Q2 2025-26 rate. City of York Council, Appendix 1 - Final Report.
Convenience-retail capacity forecasts
The York Retail Study Update 2014 provides historic convenience-goods capacity figures. In 2013, after commitments, it recorded a convenience-goods expenditure residual of -£41.9 million and a floorspace residual range of -3,533 to -5,990 square metres. The negative residuals describe the study’s position after commitments at that date.
The study then forecast positive residual capacity in later years. For 2018, it forecast £45.1 million of convenience-goods expenditure residual and 3,900 to 6,600 square metres of additional net convenience-goods floorspace. For 2023, the forecast was £74.6 million and 6,400 to 10,800 square metres.
| Study year | Convenience-goods expenditure residual | Additional net floorspace forecast |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | -£41.9 million | -3,533 to -5,990 m² |
| 2018 forecast | £45.1 million | 3,900 to 6,600 m² |
| 2023 forecast | £74.6 million | 6,400 to 10,800 m² |
| 2028 forecast | £103.0 million | 8,800 to 14,900 m² |
| 2030 forecast | £115.4 million | 9,800 to 16,600 m² |
The same study forecast £103.0 million of convenience-goods expenditure residual and 8,800 to 14,900 square metres of additional net floorspace for 2028. Its 2030 forecast was £115.4 million and 9,800 to 16,600 square metres. These are forecasts from a 2014 retail study, not later observed results. The figures may therefore differ from current conditions, definitions or development commitments. City of York Council, York Retail Study Update 2014.
Comparison retail and employment
The 2014 retail study recorded £920.0 million of turnover at York comparison-goods facilities in 2013. Those facilities held a 46.5% share of comparison-goods expenditure generated by residents in the study area. The study forecast comparison-goods facilities would attract £1,159.7 million in 2018, £1,359.5 million in 2023, £1,608.0 million in 2028 and £1,716.8 million in 2030.
The forecast sequence is useful as a record of the study’s expected scale, but it should be labelled as forecast throughout. It is not evidence that those amounts were subsequently achieved, and it does not describe the same measure as the recent city-centre sales figures. City of York Council, York Retail Study Update 2014.
York’s retail workforce baseline also comes from an older council economic assessment. In the 2013 baseline, retail provided 9,520 jobs, equal to 11% of total York employment. The sector’s location quotient was 1.31. Retail contributed 8% of city GVA, valued at £297 million, while productivity was £31,000 per worker-equivalent compared with £35,000 nationally.
The baseline described a mixed business structure: 14 retail businesses had more than 100 employees, while more than 200 businesses employed fewer than five people. The council’s model projected around 200 additional retail jobs, equivalent to 2% growth, over the following 10 years. It also projected retail GVA growth of £76 million, or 26%, and productivity growth of 23% to £39,000 over that period.
Those workforce and productivity numbers are 2013 baseline measures and projections from the council’s economic assessment, not current employment estimates. The council notes that the older baseline used Experian REM projections; its definitions and model may not match later datasets. City of York Council, An Overview of the York Economy.