Small shops found marginally more in their tills during the third quarter of this year than they did in the same three-month period last year.
New figures from the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) show that sales inched up by just 0.6%, but more significantly the proportion of BIRA members reporting growth is, at six out of 10, the highest seen since the survey began in 2007.

Holding the turnover results back is the continued fall in shop selling prices, as reported by the British Retail Consortium. Most BIRA members are non-food retailers and non-food prices have been falling for some time, so volumes need to rise to push up turnover, says the association.

BIRA found that members selling furniture and giftware were back in the black, while hardware and DIY independents extended their year-long run of growth, beaten only by garden, garden machinery and tools. Cookshop and housewares retailers were still in negative territory, but less so than in the spring.

Regionally, where seven in every eight shops lost out in the previous quarter, this time six of every eight gained. The gains have also been fairly even across the country and the north east has returned to growth after a long period of relative decline.