Pre-election uncertainty hits Scottish high street sales

POLITICAL uncertainty in the run-up to the General Election is hitting high street takings with sales north of the Border barely growing last month, figures today suggested.

Like-for-like sales in March were just 0.6 per cent ahead of a year earlier, according to the Scottish Retail Consortium. But across the UK there was a 4.4 per cent increase, prompting Richard Dodd of the SRC to describe the Scottish figures as "disappointing".

The latest SRC/KPMG Scottish Retail Sales Monitor revealed sales in the food sector were up 1.7 per cent on March last year. However, there was a fall of 0.4 per cent in non-food sales.

Dodd said: "These are disappointing results. Sales growth was up on the previous month but nowhere near as strongly as in other parts of the UK, suggesting the aftermath of recession has a tighter hold in Scotland than elsewhere.

"With a bigger proportion of Scottish jobs in the public sector than for the UK as a whole, pre-election uncertainty is having a disproportionate effect on Scottish customers' willingness to shop."