diff --git a/src/middleware/middleware.js b/src/middleware/middleware.js
index 60cd5ad27d..1cb8de3b0b 100644
--- a/src/middleware/middleware.js
+++ b/src/middleware/middleware.js
@@ -155,14 +155,11 @@ middleware.buildHeader = function(req, res, next) {
 			});
 		},
 		function(next) {
-			// this is slower than the original implementation because the rendered template is not cached
-			// but I didn't bother to fix this because we will deprecate [filter:footer.build] in favour of the widgets system by 0.4x
-			plugins.fireHook('filter:footer.build', '', function(err, appendHTML) {
-				app.render('footer', {footerHTML: appendHTML}, function(err, template) {
-					translator.translate(template, function(parsedTemplate) {
-						res.locals.footer = template;
-						next(err);
-					});
+			// consider caching this, since no user specific information is loaded here
+			app.render('footer', {}, function(err, template) {
+				translator.translate(template, function(parsedTemplate) {
+					res.locals.footer = template;
+					next(err);
 				});
 			});
 		}