Private spending on specs up, NHS down

Despite the demanding retail environment new figures reveal that opticians are braving the tough high street climate and raised the average price of spectacles by 8 per cent during 2004-05.

The yearly survey, which uses a quarter of Britain's 17.7 million sight tests as its source, reports that private sales of spectacles have also increased significantly, although sales to patients using NHS vouchers have been flat.

Optics at a Glance, FODO's research document, reveals that the average retail spend on a pair of spectacles has risen to £151 from last time's £140 (2003-2004). This is a reverse of the fall from £144.52 reported in 2002-03.

Shoppers have been spending more on spectacles in private sales, with the average price rising to £180 in 2004-05, 6.5 per cent up from the previous figure of £169. However, consumers who use Health Service vouchers, have contributed less, at £69 compared to last time's £70 average.

Nevertheless, the least expensive spectacles have returned more to practice owners after the previous report found the cheapest had dropped below the £50 barrier to £49.02 in 2003-04.

Estimates now put the cheapest pair being sold at, on average, £56. FODO believes that around two thirds of the UK's 7,300 optical practices stock a range of spectacles that are available within the price of the lowest value NHS voucher, currently £32.90.

The survey found that the average charge for a private sight test was £17.68, an increase on last year's figure of £16.69.

'Even so,' said a FODO spokesman, 'this figure remains less than half the actual cost of providing a sight test, reflecting the market reality of spectacle sales subsidising the cost of sight tests.'

Now in its 25th year, Optics at a Glance carried out its survey on nearly one in four of all Britain's sight tests in the year to March 31 2005.