Central London sales up in March

Retail sales in Central London were up 5.5% in March on a like-for-like basis, compared to the same period last year when sales had failed to grow, despite Easter falling during the month. The three-month trend rate of growth was virtually unchanged at 7.1%.

Both foreign and UK visitor numbers increased, uplifting footfall by 5%. Clothing was mixed, often depressed by the cold weather but with some upmarket ranges doing well. Home and leisure were good for some retailers, especially with promotions, but difficult for others.

London sales once again outperformed UK sales, for the fifth consecutive month, after four months of substantially larger declines than in UK sales.Kevin Hawkins, LRC Director, said "The welcome recovery in central London's performance continues, making up for the serious reverses which retailers experienced for much of last year. Costs, however, continue to rise well above RPI - especially rents and rates - so margins remain under pressure."

Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail, KPMG, added "Once again London has outperformed the rest of the UK. On the face of it the timing of Easter does not appear to have had such a marked impact on these sales as it had for the UK as a whole. However, this is to some degree masked by a weaker comparative in Central London in 2005 and the fact that the results have also benefited from changes in the timing of some promotional activity in the run-up to Easter. As with the UK scheme a truer picture of the underlying trend will only be seen once we can assess March and April's figures together."