Centre for Cities

The Centre for Cities has released a new catchment area data tool. This allows you to explore how well your city centre is doing.

Details from the Centre for Cities website:

This data tool explores the performance of high streets across the UK’s 62 largest cities and towns, using millions of debit and credit card transactions. It shows the number of empty shops in each city centre, the size of the local catchment population, and where spending leaks to competing places.

High street performance varies widely across the country, shaped by differences in local economies, spending power, and competition. This tool is designed as a resource for anyone seeking to understand the current pressures on their city centre, how it compares to others, and where opportunities may lie to strengthen its role in the local economy.

Here's a map of Norwich's catchment from the site. I live on the outer edge of that area, but would definitely say that Norwich is the city where I would be most likely to shop (other than London).

Would perhaps be useful for some students who are carrrying out fieldwork or perhaps writing up the NEA. They could also usefully be directed to some of the other tools that the Centre for Cities have produced to explore data.