Only now are Britain’s high streets busier than before Covid

Finally, in a horrible week for Rachel Reeves which has seen inflation surge, the public finances take a dive and her authority undermined by Angela Rayner’s memo and the Prime Minister’s U-turn on the winter fuel payment, a glimmer of good news. Retail sales rose by 1.2 per cent in April. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) did, however, revise down March’s figure from 0.4 per cent growth to 0.1 per cent. The quarterly figures, which are more reliable, show that sales volumes were up 1.8 per cent between February and April.

There is now a clear trend. Retail sales volumes bottomed out in December 2023 and have been generally rising since then. However, to underline just how damaging Covid was for the retail sector, sales volumes have only just, this month, surpassed the level they were in February 2020, on the eve of the pandemic. If you are a retailer, you have only recently emerged from a four-year recession.