Publication of analysis of the Northern Ireland High Street Scheme
Date published:
The Department for the Economy today published a statistical report presenting a range of analysis on the Northern Ireland High Street Scheme.
Part 1 of the report presents information taken directly from the High Street Scheme Spend database, and includes figures on spend, transactions and location of transactions. Part 2 relates to the mapping of Merchant Category Codes to Standard Industrial Classification Codes.
Key points:
At 27 January 2022:
- total spend on Spend Local cards was £136.5 million
- total number of transactions was 3,713,609
- average amount spent on activated cards was £97.94
- busiest day of transactions was Sunday 14 November 2021 with 104,477 transactions
- busiest day of spend, not including refunds, was Sunday 14 November 2021 with £4.0 million spent.
- of the £136.5 million spent, £84.9 million (62 per cent) was spent in businesses required by Regulations to close during 2020.
- the vast majority (97 per cent) of all spend was accounted for by businesses in 4 industrial sectors with 87 per cent (£118m) spent in retail businesses with a further £10m (8 per cent) spent in accommodation and food service businesses, £4m (3 per cent) spent on other service activities, and £1m (1 per cent) in professional, scientific and technical businesses.
This full statistical report and related information is available to download on the DfE website.
Notes to editors:
1. The administrative source of data relating to the High Street Scheme’s Spend Local cards and related spend is the pre-paid card provider, PFS.
2. The reports used to extract figures presented in this release were agreed between DfE and PFS.
3. Further notes and details are available in the report on the Department’s website.
4. To keep up to date with news from the Department you can follow us on the following social media channels:
- Twitter – @Economy_NI
- Facebook – @EconomyNI
- Skills to Succeed Facebook
- Instagram – economy_ni
- LinkedIn – Department for the Economy NI
5. For media enquiries contact the Department for the Economy Press Office at: pressoffice@economy-ni.gov.uk
6. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.