Store chiefs have called for decisive government action to support retailers after business secretary Lord Mandelson threw a 2.3bn lifeline to the car industry.

Retailers are dismayed that the Government has not given stores greater assistance, despite the sector’s importance to employment and the economy.

Retailers do not want a bail-out like the car makers and banks but measures to ensure continued success, such as help to re-open credit lines or rate changes.

New Look chairman Phil Wrigley said retail employs three times as many people as the car industry. He observed: “If the Government acted proportionately, should it provide support to the retail industry of£6.9bn?

“Or how about the Government not making matters worse through the planned inflation-busting increase in rates and the loss of rate relief on vacant properties?”

Focus DIY chief executive Bill Grimsey said: “The key is credit insurance and Government needs to deal with it urgently.”

Jessops executive chairman David Adams said: “I don’t believe it’s impossible for the Government to put in some kind of underpinning on credit insurance.”

BRC director-general Stephen Robertson said: “We are pushing very hard. There absolutely ought to be a loan guarantee for retailers.”

A spokeswoman for BERR, the government department in charge of business, said business assistance schemes depended on specific factors. She said that any companies the Government might help must be “fundamentally viable” and their collapse have “a dramatic effect on an area in terms of unemployment”.

Marks & Spencer executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose lent his weight to Retail Week’s Backing UK Retail campaign. He said: “Consumers need to feel reassured that the economy will improve and the right measures have been taken.”

He added: “Retail is essential to our economy and will remain so long after this recession passes – we aren’t known as a nation of shopkeepers for nothing.”

Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis, owner of stationer Ryman, wants action on “draconian parking policies” that are “destroying local high streets”. He said: “Local councils and central government departments must recognise the important collective role that retailers play in maintaining the vibrancy of many British communities.”

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