If this week’s stream of negative news from retailers proved one thing, it’s that the ties that bind the retail sector and the housing market run deep.

With fewer people moving house, it’s no surprise that people are spending less on furniture and DIY. Yesterday’s figures from Home Retail, John Lewis’s continuing difficulties in home and the withdrawal of credit insurance from suppliers to Land of Leather and ScS prove that.

But Carphone Warehouse? Well, Charles Dunstone reckons the smaller number of people moving house is hitting broadband connections. It stands to reason that, with most people now having broadband in their homes, if they’re not moving to new ones, they won’t need to be wired up.

But the impact is even broader than that. The housing market is probably the most crucial determinant of consumer confidence – after all, a home is most people’s biggest investment. So if consumers are worried that it is falling in value, it makes them more cautious about opening their purses for any shopping, let alone investing in major discretionary purchases for the home.

That’s not to say these retailers haven’t left themselves exposed. Few would miss the bargain-basement approach of Land of Leather or ScS if they were to disappear from the nation’s retail parks and, while Argos is performing creditably, Home Retail must be worried by the alarming slide in like-for-likes at Homebase, where the shift to the softer end of DIY is no longer looking so clever.

The big worry, though, is how much worse things could get. There is a real danger that inexplicably good official sales figures could lull policy setters into believing the state of retail is less bad than it really is. Any further interest rate rises would turn a bad situation into a catastrophe.