Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators: 12 June 2025

• Overall retail footfall decreased in the week to 8 June 2025, by 7% when compared with the previous week and by 2% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024; shopping centres saw the largest week on week decrease of 10%, coinciding with the end of half-term (MRI OnLocation).

• The seasonally adjusted Direct Debit failure rate increased by 1% in May 2025 compared with April 2025 and increased by 6% when compared with May 2024; the average transaction amount in May 2025 remained broadly unchanged compared with April 2025 but increased by 2% when compared with May 2024 (Vocalink, Pay.UK). 

• In our latest Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN), around 1 in 3 households reported difficulty in affording their energy bills (33% very or somewhat difficult, 60% very or somewhat easy) and when asked what they are doing because of increases in cost of living, around 1 in 3 (36%) households reported using less fuel such as gas or electricity (initial findings for May 2025 from our OPN, publishing on 20 June 2025). 

• When looking ahead to July 2025, over half (52%) of businesses reported that they were not considering raising prices and for the 48% who were considering raising prices, or were unsure, labour costs (21%), prices of raw materials (15%) and energy prices (14%) were cited as the most-commonly reported reasons for doing so (initial results from Wave 134 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey). 

• The System Price of electricity and the System Average Price (SAP) of gas both increased in the week to 8 June 2025 compared with the previous week by 12% and 1%, respectively; they also both increased when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 by 22% and 3%, respectively (Elexon, National Gas Transmission). 

• The total number of ship visits to major UK ports was broadly unchanged in the week to 8 June 2025 compared with the previous week, but decreased by 6% when compared with the equivalent week of 2024; this differed for cargo and tanker ship visits which increased by 5% in the latest week but was broadly unchanged when compared with the equivalent week of 2024 (exactEarth). 

• The total number of Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPCs) for new dwellings in the week to 8 June 2025 increased by 13% compared with the previous week; when compared with the equivalent week of 2024, it fell by 14% (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 two 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 5 June 2025.  

• Automotive fuel spending dataset; updated 12 June 2025.  

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

• Advanced notification of potential redundancies dataset; updated 12 June 2025.  

• System Average price of gas dataset; updated 12 June 2025. 

• System Price of electricity dataset; updated 12 June 2025. 

• Energy Performance Building Certificates (EPC) dataset; updated 12 June 2025. 

• Weekly shipping indicators dataset; updated 12 June 2025.  

• Daily UK flights dataset; updated 12 June 2025.  

Monthly data release 

• Monthly Direct Debit failure rate and average transaction amount dataset; updated 12 June 2025.  

• Textkernel new online job adverts dataset; updated 22 May 2025.  

• Value Added Tax (VAT) flash estimates dataset; updated 22 May 2025.  

• Renter affordability for new tenancies dataset; updated 12 June 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. 

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.