Growth sluggish for UK retailers

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Helen Dickinson, KPMG's head of retail, said: "We hold our breath as to whether the upcoming public spending review will derail current retail spending further."

Like-for-like sales, which strip out the effect of new shop floor space, grew 0.5pc compared with a year earlier, following 1pc growth in August, on the BRC/KPMG retail sales monitor.

What growth there was came mostly from sales of food, but the improvement was partly driven by food price inflation. Non-food sales fell year-on-year for the first time since mid-2009.

"With VAT higher than it was last year, and pushing up sales values, it's an even worse performance than it looks," said Stephen Robertson, BRC director-general. "We've now had six straight months of low growth thanks to persistently weak consumer confidence and worries about the future."

There was little evidence of consumers bringing forward major purchases from next year to avoid the impact of January's VAT increase.

Retailers are hoping such a trend could provide an end-of-year boost, but the BRC said larger purchases were particularly hit by consumers' uncertainty over the future.

Furniture and floor coverings remained the worst-performing sector, in line with recent gloomy data pointing to a stagnating housing market.

Helen Dickinson, KPMG's head of retail, said: "We hold our breath as to whether the upcoming public spending review will derail current retail spending further – confidence is fragile