Following several months of flat or negative growth, the high street is showing signs of recovery, according to the BDO high street sales tracker, with like-for-like sales up 3.5% for September.
Yet homewares was the sore thumb negative sector, dipping by 5.3% while most other categories saw rises. This was blamed on the continued struggles of the housing market.

Non-fashion did comparatively better, up 7%, buoyed by gifting and leisure, beauty and luxury sales. Non-store sales grew by a third (32.5%) following an "Olympic lull", with the majority of retailers seeing double-digit growth.

BDO national head of retail and wholesale Don Williams said: "These figures are being compared against a relatively weak 2011, but the predicted Olympic afterglow seems to have helped boost sales everywhere apart from homewares. The autumnal weather has certainly provided a welcome fillip for fashion sales too.

"Next month's figures will give us a better idea of how strong the recovery is, but we expect growth to remain positive in the run up to Christmas."