The number of people in city centres has returned to pre-pandemic levels at weekends, but not during the week, suggesting some workers have not gone back to offices, new research has suggested.

Centre for Cities said the so-called footfall in the centre of cities it studied reached three-quarters of pre-pandemic levels at the start of the month and weekend footfall has returned to normal.

Overall footfall was highest in Blackpool, Southend, Barnsley and Burnley, according to the study of 63 cities.

The think tank said footfall in 11 of the cities has now returned to normal, mostly in the North and Midlands, with London and other big cities continuing to lag behind.

In central London, footfall is just half of pre-pandemic levels while in Glasgow city centre it was 64% and in Manchester city centre it was 73%, said the report.

“The stark gap between weekday and evening and weekend footfall suggests that most people are now willing to return to city centres for leisure purposes such as shopping or nightlife, but not for work,” said the report.