In Christmas past, British retailers have enjoyed a festive bonanza in their stores as shoppers – emboldened by cheap credit and rising house prices – spent money without a care in the world.

But this year, shopkeepers have been forced to swallow a bitter cocktail of sluggish sales and painful price cuts as they grapple for cash to pay their rent bills and fund debt repayments in what is proving to be the high street’s bleakest winter in three decades.