Retailers urge 'shoppers' budget' as figures point to squeeze

Pre-Christmas trading off to poor start with weakest growth non-food spending in more than five years, says BRCBritain’s hard-pressed retailers have urged the chancellor to deliver a budget for shoppers later this month after the latest snapshot of activity in the high street showed consumers under further pressure in October.The British Retail Consortium said like-for-like sales in October had fallen 1% compared with the same period last year. The key pre-Christmas trading period had star