Fashion sales led the upturn, up 5.1 per cent year-on-year, according to the BDO’s latest High Street Sales Tracker, which monitors sales changes at more than 70 retailers, as retailers placed an emphasis on their summer ranges.

]Sales in non-fashion also grew by 2.3 per cent, says the study, which concludes that the bank holidays and warm weather encouraged consumers to spend on the high street. However, sales at homewares stores remained negative for the third consecutive month, down 5.3 per cent.

April’s figures are up on the same period last year, and are better than the previous month’s year-on-year figures, which were the worst since January 2010.

Don Williams, national head of retail and wholesale at BDO, warns that ‘consumers may be starting to spend but we all have less money than we did a year ago’.

‘While there are tentative signs that the underlying conditions are starting to tilt in the right direction, retailers need to hold tight – we’re not out of the woods yet,’ he adds.