Average cost of spectacles falls

Tough trading conditions have led to a fall in the average retail cost of a pair of spectacles. And the yearly survey, which uses a quarter of all annual sight tests as its source, reports that the least expensive has dropped below the £50 barrier to £49.02. Optics at a Glance, FODO's research document, reports a 2.5 percentage drop in average retail spend overall from £144.52 (2002/03) to £140.91 in the year to March 31 2004. The average price appears to have stabilised after last year's rise which saw the average price jump over £17 from £127.09 (2001/2002). In its analysis of NHS and private spectacle costs, FODO's calculations on the least expensive spectacles revealed a continuing fall from two years ago when the cheapest were calculated at £56.09. For 2002/2003, the least expensive spectacles were £53.66. However, this year's survey found that figure has fallen further to £49.02. Of the spectacle dispensings recorded by FODO, 24 per cent used an NHS voucher to pay for all or part of the cost. The average price for spectacles bought on the NHS was £70.02, a rise of £11.38 on last time's £58.64, and the average spent on privately bought spectacles was also up, FODO calculated, from £163.58 to £169.29. The DoH estimated there were 17.2 million sight tests in the year to March 31, with 33.6 per cent of them paid for privately. FODO estimated that 5 per cent of eye examinations resulted in a patient choosing to purchase contact lenses, a figure which is a constant when compared to last year. Optics at a Glance has been published annually for 24 years, and FODO claims that its high street brand membership represents 70 per cent of 'market activity', and carry out six out of 10 of the total number of eye examinations carried out in the UK each year.