High street and catalogue fashion retailer Next has warned that trading conditions will continue to be 'difficult.'

The company blamed increased costs and rising taxes putting pressure on its customers. Bleakly, it said it saw no prospect of a recovery in UK consumer spending during the year ahead.

Shares were off 61p, or 5% in early trade to 1,118 pence.

The company is basing its internal budgets for the first half to the end of July 2008 on Next Retail like-for-like sales being down 4-7% and Next Directory sales being flat to up 2%.