Retailers hoping for last-minute Christmas spend as expert tells LBC of 'weak' festive period for shops

UK households are predicted to spend around £3.4 billion across Saturday and Sunday, which is up more than 12 per cent on the same weekend in 2024.

Almost 50 million trips to the shops are expected to be made by last-minute buyers, according to analysts GlobalData for Vouchercodes.co.uk.

Tom Holder, head of Communications at the British Retail Consortium, told LBC's Paul Brand on Saturday that the slow build-up to December was partly caused by hesitation around the Budget.

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Mr Holder said: "The last data that we have shows it was a fairly weak November overall.

"I think there was a belief that there were families out there, many families, who were concerned that, for instance, there might be income tax rises or other changes that would have a sort of meaningful impact on their sort of income, particularly around Christmas.

"So I think some people held off to see whether there was going to be anything particularly life changing in the Budget.

"As it turned out, the impact is probably fairly small on households. Hopefully spending will pick up and we've seen that consumer sentiment has picked up.

"It is the absolutely crucial time it is that last week people, shops particularly will find it important because we're getting to that moment where it's almost too late to get things delivered or to guarantee that things will be delivered in time.

"So the shops have an extra special place in this last week and the weekend."

Clothing companies including Primark, New Look and H&M, have already launched discounts in a bid to tempt out cautious shoppers.

The toy brand The Entertainer has launched its reductions of up to 60 per cent on more than 950 toys and games in stores, also suggesting trade has been slow.

When asked if Christmas was also becoming more expensive for food bills, Mr Holder said there was good news and bad news.

He told Paul: "Food inflation has been quite high over the last year and that's really fed into the feeling that Christmas is getting more expensive because you can't not buy food over the Christmas period and most people will get together for some kind of big meal.

"So that is having an impact on people's wallets. On the whole, we're actually seeing for non-food ,for what you might think of the gifts and the presents, a lot of those things are actually coming down.

"Electronics are cheaper, clothing is cheaper. So that will be good news for some people. The question is whether that's cheap enough to overcome the rise in prices of food."

He added: "That said, I don't think it's really the fault. The supermarkets, I think they do what they can. I think they're in a very competitive state to try and keep prices down."