Consumer advice: Confidence will not return until after the election

People looking for consumer advice will not be confident in the marketplace until after the general election, according to one expert, who said that enthusiasm is on hold.

Speaking at the Totally DIY show at the Birmingham NEC, Stephen Robertson, director general at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said that the retail sector has remained resilient in the recession.

"My instinct says actually the return of confidence has gone as far as it is going to go for now and I think it is on ice until we see the results of the election. The consumer is not going to get more enthusiastic," he said.

The expert added that supermarkets have managed to improve their premium lines as well as entry level products.

In other news the BRC revealed that UK retail sales values fell by 0.7 per cent last month on a like-for-like basis from January 2009, when sales had risen by 1.1 per cent.

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