Eight in 10 households to cut or freeze Xmas spend
OVER three in 10 households are planning to spend less this Christmas than last year, a worrying survey for the retail sector revealed yesterday.
And the survey, conducted by Legal & General, showed that over half (51 per cent) of respondents will restrict their spending to “no more than last year”.
The squeeze on Britons’ finances were further demonstrated by the report, which revealed that 1.6m households said they could not afford to buy presents and pay for celebrations this year.
In London alone around 162,000 people think they cannot afford their planned winter celebrations, the survey claimed.
“Our latest research suggests that households are taking a sensible approach to spending with only one in five saying that they intend to use a credit card to pay for Christmas,” commented Legal & General’s Mark Gregory.
“This is considerably lower than our survey last year where around a third (32 per cent) of households were planning to use a credit card to pay for the festivities,” Gregory explained. “Perhaps this reflects a more prudent attitude to credit card debt in these straightened times.”
Legal & General recently reported that over a million Brits say they are worse off than one year ago.