According to the British Retail Consortium footfall in December was 1.2 per cent lower than in 2011, despite seeing a 0.4 per cent rise last November.

The UK’s worst-hit locations this December were the North & Yorkshire, down 4.8 per cent, the East of England, down 7.1 per cent and Wales where footfall went down 11.5 per cent.

However four regions reported an increase in footfall, including the West Midlands 10.0 per cent, Scotland 6.2 per cent and Greater London 3.1 per cent.

On a month-on-month basis footfall rose considerably in all locations. Shopping centres increased 19.5% followed by high street (8.8%) and out-of-town (7.3%) locations.

Helen Dickinson, British Retail Consortium Director General, said: "It wasn't a bumper Christmas but it wasn't a disaster either. Our December retail sales figures showed very modest sales growth for the market as a whole.