High street retail sales suffered in June as the impact of the credit crunch and unpredictable weather kept customers away from stores, the British Retail Consortium claims.

The body said retailers had been unable to retain the surprise rise in sales that had been seen in May, and attributed that to a seasonal blip.

Like-for-like retail sales were down 0.4% on June 2007, which itself was hampered by wet weather, while total sales - which includes new outlets - increased by 2.1%.

The only sector that demonstrated notable growth was food and drink while clothing, footwear, furniture and home furnishings were all down from last year.