Sunny weather helps boosts clothes sales at Next

Sunny weather helped Next defy the High Street gloom on Thursday as a surprise sales boost for the fashion chain lifted shares nearly 10%.

Lord Wolfson’s retailer has been in the doldrums lately as consumer prospects have soured, but sharper ranges alongside the rush for seasonal togs pushed full-price sales up 0.7% in the quarter to July 29.

With customary caution, however, he says shoppers are still under the cosh as inflation rises above wages and spending “will remain subdued until the end of the year.”

But the squeeze should ease in 2018 as “the inflationary bubble will have passed through the system.”

The shares are barely half their 2015 peak but added 368p to 4381p today.

Wolfson is also returning an extra £50 million in cash to shareholders.