FEARS that Britain is about to have a "runaway" consumer boom are misplaced, according to a leading retail organisation which yesterday published figures showing high street spending is stabilising.

The British Retail Consortium said its September survey found like for like retail sales had grown by 5.2 per cent compared with last year.

This compared with 6.9 per cent in August and 6.5 per cent across the summer as a whole, it said.