STRUGGLING retailers have renewed calls for tax breaks to protect jobs in the industry after the number of people hitting the shops fell yet again.

Latest figures show retailers are continuing to compete with internet shopping sites with uncertainty over jobs and interest rates following the vote for the UK to leave the EU continuing to affect the number of shoppers entering stores.

Footfall, the measure used to calculate the number of people entering malls and stores, fell by 1.9 per cent in the month to July 30, when the impact of the referendum result weighed heavy on household finances amid warnings of an interest rate cut that finally came last week.

The figures, provided by the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and retail analysts Springboard, also showed footfall had dropped 3.3 per cent between May to June.

This had led to fresh calls from the SRC for wide-reaching reform of business rates to protect 250,000 people in the industry as it warned shopkeepers face a long period of fragile demand in the wake of the Brexit vote.

“These are testing times for the industry, and the Holyrood government and MSPs can assist by taking tangible action in the upcoming Scottish Budget to bolster consumer and business sentiment,” said SRC director David Lonsdale.

The SRC last week urged

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay to take “bold and ambitious” action in his autumn statement, including reversing a rates hike imposed

on retailers last year, and fundamentally reforming business

rates.

Mr Lonsdale said retailers faced “significant challenges” because of current economic uncertainty, highlighting that the scale of decline is faster than the 1.5 per cent average seen over the past three months, “pointing to a continuing fragility in demand and the ongoing popularity of online retailing”.

It has also been reported that supermarket sales have sunk below £100 billion for the first time in six years amid fierce competition in the UK grocery sector.

Food retail revenues dropped by three per cent to £99 billion in the second quarter, according to The Share Centre’s Profit Watch UK study, with overall revenues of UK plc slipping two per cent to £341.7 billion over the period.

“Retailers’ prospects are ultimately determined by the state of the economy, the balance between their income and costs and their own ability to adapt and seize on the opportunities that arise,” said Mr Lonsdale.

He said the retail industry needed a “clear road map” for future tax and regulatory changes, in addition to a tight lid being

put on personal and business tax rates and charges. The SRC

also called for ministers to scrap the Scotland-only large business levy that saw 29,000 businesses

pay out an additional £62m in tax.

This was supported by the Scottish Chamber of Commerce, whose chief executive, Liz Cameron, said inaction was “no longer an option”.

The Scottish Government announced in December it would re-value business rates, which raise £2.8 billion in Scotland, but the figures are based on the economy before the economic shock of the Brexit vote.

Economic secretary Keith Brown said investment in infrastructure and not tax cuts was the best way to protect the country’s economy.

It comes as BHS is to disappear from the high street by the end of the week following its collapse.

The dying days of Sir Philip Green’s former empire has been attracting bargain hunters

to its heavily discounted stores over the weekend in Scotland and elsewhere.