Premier's Hudson: Which companies will benefit from the hard-up consumer?

While surveys suggest the UK consumer is reasonably confident about their personal finances, we are less convinced.

Since the EU referendum result, UK consumer spending has remained remarkably resilient, yet the very low savings ratio suggests most households are funding their expenditure via debt.  The good news is that despite being largely stagnant since the Global Financial Crisis, the latest labour market report by the ONS showed nominal pay increasing by 3.1%, the highest level since December 2008. Perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised. The rate of unemployment and economically inactive people in the UK is the lowest in 44 years, while job vacancies are at the highest level since records began...