Sales of second-hand kitchens, islands and dressers are going through the roof, largely due to bargain-hunters’ hunger for flexible and design-friendly painted kitchens.

Stores in the North are likely to be casualties of Toys R Us plans to close 26 stores in Britain and the North as part of its bankruptcy restructuring in the US.

Wall Street retrenched today as the trade deficit widened and oil prices surged, while a weak quarterly report from Dell also disheartened the US market.

A consortium of two private-equity firms and a real estate developer has reportedly agreed to pay $5.7bn (€4.2bn) to buy all of New Jersey-based Toys R Us, the second-biggest toy retailer in the US.