SHOPPERS will feel the pinch in the New Year, with price hikes putting a strain on disposable incomes.
Increasing inflation and council-tax rises are likely to put a strain on how much money consumers have to spend, said the director of the Scottish Retail Consortium.
David Lonsdale also predicted the country’s shops would face “formidable challenges” in the coming year and called for a “more coherent” approach to policy-making.
The warnings come after reports that Boxing Day sales were 6.7 per cent down on last year’s figures, making it a disappointing end to a challenging year for many struggling UK retailers.
In his New Year public message, Mr Lonsdale said: “In many respects our economy lives or dies by what happens to consumer spending.
“That’s why policy-makers should be concerned about the formidable challenges for Scottish retail in the year ahead. Rising inflation and council taxes are likely to put a strain on disposable incomes.
“However, households will be relieved by the Scottish Government’s decision not to increase income-tax rates, an area on which the Scottish Retail Consortium and Government are firmly at one.
“Retailers themselves continue to grapple with a hotchpotch of Government-imposed cost pressures.
“This is set to continue into early 2017 when employers of scale start forking out for the apprenticeship levy.
“This reinforces the need for government at every level to work more effectively with the retail industry to help it keep down the cost of living for consumers and to help it thrive and prosper.
“A more coherent approach towards policy-making in the year ahead is certainly required.
“This will become all the more important with Scotland’s economic performance now determining to a significant extent the levels of devolved public sector revenue.
“That will only become more important, especially with half of VAT receipts soon to be assigned to the Holyrood Parliament.
“Our MSPs will have an even greater direct stake in supporting a flourishing retail industry.”
He said he hoped 2017 will bring more clarity on the implications of Brexit, particularly for tariffs on imported goods, and that the culmination of the Barclay review of business rates will result in a rate reduction to help boost retailers’ confidence and help revitalise the country’s high streets.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here