06/04/2009 - High street fortunes looking up
The UK's beleaguered high street has received a small piece of encouraging news after Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose said that trading conditions had stopped getting worse.
His comments may not exactly be gushing with confidence, but added to better-than-expected sales figures, they give hope that maybe the worst is over.
And while the recession may not have come to an end, an eleventh-hour decision by the Chancellor to scrap the planned 5% increase in business rates to 2% was welcome news for hard-pressed retail firms.
The sector has suffered from a plunge in consumer confidence as the public held back on spending after last autumn's financial crisis.
Yet recent updates and results from consumer-facing firms indicating that consumer spending is beginning to stabilise may mean fortunes are improving.
In the pub sector, Enterprise Inns and JD Wetherspoon gave upbeat updates, while even tour operators have been optimistic, with Thomas Cook saying trade had "improved significantly" in the past four weeks.
Consumer confidence figures from GfK NOP's monthly survey added further encouragement, showing a slight improvement in March.
Copyright © Press Association 2009
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