The British Independent Retailers Association has said while it's happy to see the UK inflation rate dropping to 7.9% in June, it is still concerned that food prices remain high.

BIRA, which works with over 6,000 independent businesses of all sizes across the UK, said the inflation rate for food is a worry as it reduces the discretionary spend that is the 'lifeblood of thousands of independents'.

Today it was announced that the UK's rate of inflation dropped to 7.9% according to the Office for National Statistics. But this means the rate of price rises in the UK has slowed more than expected, down from 8.7% in May, although this still remains high.

Falling fuel prices have contributed to the drop but food prices have risen less quickly than in June last year the report has shown.

Bira CEO Andrew Goodacre said: "It is always good to see inflation falling and this month by a larger amount than expected.

"However, we remain concerned about food inflation at 17% because this reduces the discretionary spend that is the lifeblood of thousands of independent retailers. We can see that the producer price inflation ha fallen significantly and we must hope and expect the food price inflation to fall much more in the near future.

"I also hope that the larger than expected fall in inflation change the thinking at the Bank of England with regards to interest rates. Future increases may not be necessary and if they insist on raining rates, we must surely expect the size of any increase to be reduced. Higher interest rates are hurting small retailers who may still be paying back bounce back loans and at very high rates," he said.