Preston retailers remain optimistic for the future

And the longer-term picture shows a continued slowdown nationally in the sector.

But today Mark Whittle, manager of Business Improvement District, said: “Against national statistics Preston retailers are performing better that average.

“Although we have to be minded that national retail sales figures for January reflect what we are seeing in our own Quarterly Economic Survey.

“Growth is muted across a number of sectors and many business are reluctant to make investment decisions at a time when business costs are increasing. “

He added: “Preston, benchmarked against its counterparts with a similar offer, continues to perform with relative positivity. Incremental increases have been evidenced from the city’s footfall counting technology – as large as five per cent on certain days, year on year.”

The Lancashire-based Federation of Small Businesses National Chairman Mike Cherry, said: “Rising costs, surging business rates and slow domestic growth are all weighing on small retailers. “One in three expects their business performance to worsen over the first quarter of this year.

“More than a third see flagging consumer demand as a barrier to growth and a quarter are concerned about labour costs.”

In January 2018, the underlying pattern in retail sales was one of slow growth with the quantity bought increasing by 0.1 per cent.

That is the lowest growth since April 2017.

Rhian Murphy, Office for National Statistics Senior Statistician said: “Retail sales growth was broadly flat at the beginning of the New Year This can partly be attributed to a background of generally rising prices.”

But there was a rise in sports equipment sales attributed to New Year’s resolutions to get fit.