From shaping policy to shipping new features, 2025 kicked off with a fast-paced quarter for the High Streets Data Service. Catch up on standout analysis and partnership updates below.

ULEZ 12-month report: no harm to Outer London high streets 
Earlier this month, Rachel ’s analysis was part of the 12-month ULEZ impact evaluation. While previous reports examined the environmental impact, this was the first to look at economic effects of the August 2023 expansion. Rachel’s analysis of BT footfall and Mastercard spend indicated that ULEZ did not hurt Outer London high streets, which was bolstered by similar findings from our friends at Centre for Cities (despite misleading tabloid headlines to the contrary.) 

Oxford Street spend recovery — consultation now live
Lauren 's analysis on Oxford Street’s post-pandemic recovery now features centrally in TfL’s public consultation on pedestrianising the area. Her analysis of in-store spend since 2018 showed that Oxford Street's spend recovery still lags the wider West End, complementing local footfall and rents analysis by NWEC to make a case for change.  

Central London Fridays case study on display at The London Centre 
Damilola and @Mike created an engaging video with BT footfall data showing how office attendance and visitor counts vary across weekdays in Central London, building on Lauren and Paul 's previous "Friday Effect" analyses. Thanks to a partnership with the NLA, visitors to The London Centre in Guildhall can view the animated footfall data as part of a showcase on data's role in planning London’s future. 

Vacancy Report live on the HSD Hub
London’s typical high street has an 8.5% shopfront vacancy rate — 2.1 percentage points below the UK average. You can now track vacancy trends in your own area with a new report on the HSD Hub. See the full announcement, including a worked example from Erith town centre in Bexley: Track Shopfront Vacancy and Prepare for HSRAs with New HSD Hub Report 

2025 Membership Prospectus & Annual Partnership Update
In March, we shared our plans for FY25–26 with HSDS account leads — including more data on the Hub, a more integrated service offer, expansion to community groups, and new opportunities to share data across the public sector. You can catch up via the recording of the Annual Partnership Update and review the updated 2025 Membership Prospectus:

Welcoming: The Crown Estate! 
We’re thrilled to welcome The Crown Estate as our newest HSDS member—and the first outside the borough, BID, and GLA Group network. They’ll use the service to benchmark trends in Regent Street and explore visitor flows for the park-to-park initiative. Their involvement opens doors to exploring use cases for Council's estates teams and the property sector. 

High streets data enters Augmented Reality in Cannes @ MIPIM
HSDS data joined the Mayor of London and the New London Model at MIPIM last month to help promote investment for the London Local Growth Plan. Through an augmented reality mobile app built by VirtualViewing, visitors to the London MIPIM stand could explore how resident, worker, and visitor footfall varies across the 1:2000 scale model of Central London.

The High Streets Data Service is hosting an onboarding session for new users on Thursday, 24 April 11-12:30pm:  REGISTER HERE  

This is an interactive training on how to find basic insights about your high streets, town centres, or BID using the High Streets Hub and High Streets Map Explorer tools, and how to download data files from the Datastore. (The content is the same as previous onboarding sessions, so no need to attend if you've already gone through the training.) Please ensure you have access to these tools prior to attending, so you can follow along.