Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators: 15 May 2025

• Overall retail footfall decreased by 2% in the week to 11 May 2025 compared with the previous week and decreased by 5% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024; decreases were also seen across high streets (6%), shopping centres (5%), and retail parks (2%) when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (MRI OnLocation).

• The seasonally adjusted "Total" Direct Debit failure rate for April 2025 decreased by 1% from March 2025, but increased by 5% from April 2024; the Direct Debit failure rate for "Electricity and Gas" and "Water" categories also both increased when compared with April 2024, by 27% and 14%, respectively (Pay.UK, Vocalink).

• Economic uncertainty was the most commonly reported challenge affecting turnover for trading businesses in early May 2025, at 30%, down 2 percentage points from early April 2025; other concerns commonly reported were the cost of labour (20%), competition (19%) and the cost of materials (17%) (initial results from Wave 132 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey).

• The System Price of electricity and the System Average Price (SAP) of gas increased by 23% and 8%, respectively, in the week to 11 May 2025 compared with the previous week and increased by 43% and 12%, respectively, when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (Elexon, National Gas Transmission).

• The seasonally adjusted number of daily UK flights increased by 1% in the week to 11 May 2025 compared with the previous week and increased by 2% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (EUROCONTROL).

• The total number of ship visits to major UK ports was broadly unchanged in the week to 11 May 2025 compared with the previous week but decreased by 13% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024; for cargo and tanker ships, it decreased by 1% in the week to 11 May 2025 and decreased by 12% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (exactEarth).

• The total number of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) increased by 1% for new dwellings in the week to 11 May 2025 compared with the previous week and increased by 2% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024; total EPCs for existing dwellings decreased by 12% in the week to 11 May 2025 and decreased by 15% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government).

Notes:

1. Card spending over time is pushed upwards by the impacts of both inflation on value of transactions and cash-to-card conversion.

2. Revolut adjustments to user count are at an aggregate level and as such age bands may not adjust evenly.

3. Indicators with SA in the title have been seasonally adjusted.

This section lists a selection of data available in this publication. Please note that because of our data sharing agreement with MRI onLocation, we are unable to provide a dataset for our footfall metric. For the full list of available datasets, please see our accompanying dataset page.

Real-time indicator

A real-time indicator provides insights into economic activity using close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys or experimental estimates, which represent useful economic and social concepts.

Seasonal adjustment

Seasonal adjustment is the identification and removal of consistent and systematic variation in time series associated with the time of year. For more information on seasonal variation, and how we implement seasonal adjustment, see Section 2 of our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology article.

Official statistics in development

These statistics are labelled as official statistics in development. Until September 2023, these were called "experimental statistics". Read more about the change in our Guide to official statistics in development.

We are developing how we collect and produce the data to improve the quality of these statistics. Find out more in our Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators methodology article.

Once the developments are complete, we will review the statistics with the Statistics Head of Profession. We will decide if the statistics are of sufficient quality and value to be published as official statistics, or if further development is needed. Production may be stopped if they are not of sufficient quality or value. Users will be informed of the outcome and any changes.

We value your feedback on these statistics. If you would like to get in touch, please email realtime.indicators@ons.gov.uk.

Dataset release dates and intended release frequency

Latest release dates and intended release frequency of our associated datasets are available in this section. Please note that there may be some change to the intended release frequency for a variety of reasons, such as data availability. If you would like further information about any of these datasets, or previous release dates, please email realtime.indicators@ons.gov.uk.

Weekly data release

• Revolut spending on debit cards dataset; updated 15 May 2025.

• Automotive fuel spending dataset; updated 15 May 2025.

• Company incorporations, voluntary dissolutions and compulsory dissolutions dataset; updated 30 January 2025.

• Advanced notification of potential redundancies dataset; updated 15 May 2025.

• System Average price of gas dataset; updated 15 May 2025.

• System Price of electricity dataset; updated 15 May 2025.

• Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPC) dataset; updated 15 May 2025.

• Weekly shipping indicators dataset; updated 15 May 2025.

• Daily UK flights dataset; updated 15 May 2025.

Monthly data release

• Monthly Direct Debit failure rate and average transaction amount dataset; updated 15 May 2025.

• Textkernel new online job adverts dataset; updated 25 April 2025.

• Value Added Tax (VAT) flash estimates dataset; updated 17 April 2025.

• Renter affordability for new tenancies dataset; updated 9 May 2025.

Quarterly data release

• Sales and jobs in small businesses dataset; updated 7 November 2024.

Discontinued data series

• UK credit and debit card payments; updated 5 December 2024.

Please note, these estimates are no longer being updated following a review of our real-time indicator (RTI) processes, sources and systems. This is to ensure timely official statistics in development are provided, with published estimates unaffected. Please see the Bank of England's Guide to the UK spending on credit and debit cards experimental data series for further information about these estimates.

Strengths and limitations

These statistics have been produced to provide timely indicators of the effect of developing world events on the UK economy and society. We use close-to-real-time big data, administrative data sources, rapid response surveys, or official statistics in development.

The data presented in this bulletin are reviewed and refreshed on a regular basis. Indicators are swapped in and out of the publication based on their suitability and availability.

Seasonality

Seasonal fluctuations are likely to be present in many of these indicators, so caution must be applied when interpreting changes in series that are not seasonally adjusted.