December 14 2011

Britain’s retail slump is heaping further misery on Britain’s long suffering High Street’s with new figures indicating that retail sales have suffered their worst fall since records began in 1999.

According to the Scottish Retail Consortium and KPMG sales in November dropped 1.3% on the same month last year and throw into sharp relief the challenges faced by Mary Portas and her crusade to fix our ailing town centres.

It also shows how Scotland is slipping behind the UK as a whole which posted modest growth of 0.7% during the crucial Christmas period.

Sales of non-food items led the fall, dropping by 3.3% as mild weather hit sales of winter clothing.

SRC director Ian Shearer, said: “Retailers in Scotland have had an exceptionally tough year, worse than the UK as a whole. Consumer confidence is currently lower in Scotland than the UK average and householders are more worried about jobs and the state of their personal finances.”

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