Mr Everett said his business was experiencing strong demand from more affluent customers despite caution among the middle classes. “We’re taking our offering steadily higher in the marketplace. We’re going after clients with bigger budgets, people who are less affected by some of these changes.
“Our average order value has increased by probably 30pc, because people who couldn’t really afford to have one of our kitchens, no matter how desperately they might want one, they now are just going, ‘B—– it, we can’t afford it’, whereas the people that can are still going for it.
“It’s a proper old middle-class squeeze, this one.”
Despite a better economic outlook, gloom has descended over the UK after a bleak speech in August by the Prime Minister, when he said those with the “broadest shoulders should bear the heavier burden” at the Budget.
Matthew O’Grady, co-owner of Thomas Matthew, a kitchens retailer in Poole, Dorset, said he had been told by some customers explicitly that they were now holding off on orders until after the Budget, while others were not responding to quotes.
“There’s been a big decline in our quote to win rate – people are just not getting back to you,” he said. “I am hoping after the Budget announcement people have more certainty in the markets, things will get back to normal.”
It comes amid a wider downturn in consumer confidence across Britain as people rein in their spending, anticipating that the Budget will hit their finances.
Vince Gunn, the chief executive of kitchen company Harvey Jones, said: “I think the positioning of the October Budget, i.e. the Government calibrating and communicating to people that they will be financially adversely affected, has been a further dilution of confidence.”
GfK’s long-running consumer confidence index plunged by seven points to -20 in September, indicating that households are feeling less secure about their finances and the economy in general.