yes, a very warm welcome to all the business news. and we start here in the uk, where skyrocketing inflation is causing big problems for retailers. just how big will be revealed in a few hours when we get those retail sales numbers forjuly. if we look back, sales fell 0.1% month on month injune, and that was a better than expected result as rising energy and fuel prices dented consumer confidence. now that inflation is topping 10%, the british independent retailers association is calling for 100% rates relief to be introduced for smaller retailers, and an energy price cap for businesses. let us get more. andrew goodacre, ceo, british independent retailers association. good morning. thank you for joining us. you are calling for the smaller retail, rate relief and an energy price for business in general. just talk about energy, energy prices have gone through the roof stop how much is it hurting our retailers? how much is it hurting our retailers? ,., ., ., , retailers? good m
cheering. time for a look at the weather. here s helen willetts. some beautiful weather watchers last night. as you can see from the skies, these are from highlands scotland but it s a strong our rowrah at the moment so if we get clear skies we may see it. towards the north we have that coming in to parts of scotland and perhaps a bit further south as well. we do have cloudier skies here, you see at the moment, on that weather front. lots of showers and still the remnants of the overnight rain, pacific oceany rain in the south. between it, sow good spells of sunshine and we have lost the humidity. so while we have a blustery breeze and showers continuing across scotland, northern ireland, they tend to ease, temperatures aren t quite as high, as they were last night, because we have lost the humidity. sorry, yesterday, but it feels pleasant out there. we should see evening sunshine as the showers fade away, so an opportunity to witness the northern lights in the north but not