Capital's retailers holding up to battering

London retailers are weathering High Street storms far better than those in the rest of the country, the British Retail Consortium said today.

The capital was one of only three regions where footfall rose between May and July, its figures showed.

London also has the lowest share of empty stores in High Streets and shopping centres across the country, with a vacancy rate of 6.5%, little more than half the UK average of 11.2%. Shoppers have faced a huge squeeze this year as inflation runs well ahead of wages but London's performance has been bolstered by its stronger economy, higher average salaries and lower proportion of public-sector workers.

Conditions in the capital contrast starkly with Northern Ireland and Wales, which have seen big declines in shoppers in the past three months.

Northern Ireland has the highest share of empty shops at 17.1%. Outside London only the South-west and Scotland saw higher footfall.

BRC director general Stephen Robertson said: "Generally, the parts of the UK where the public sector is a bigger proportion of the economy are the ones where customer spending is most likely to be hit by worries about job prospects and cuts, meaning people are shopping less and more retail businesses are failing."