Both were tokens of Britain's slide into what forecasters say will be a recession.
In its monthly survey, the British Retail Consortium said total retail sales fell 0.1 percent in October from a year earlier, the first such fall since April 2005, when comparisons were distorted by the timing of Easter. In September, total sales were up an annual 1.0 percent.
The BRC said like-for-like sales, which strip out new stores and space, fell by 2.2 percent in the year to October, the seventh fall in the last eight months and the worst performance since May 2005.
"These are seriously poor numbers, especially in the run-up to Christmas," said Stephen Robertson, the BRC's director-general.
A more detailed look at the BRC survey, which was conducted in the four weeks to Nov. 1 and covers 60 percent of British retailing, shows that food and drink was the only sector to report sales significantly up on a year ago. Clothing and footwear sales were particularly bad and heavily discounted despite colder and much wetter weather in Britain than the previous year.
In separate news, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its survey of around 300 surveyor-real estate agents around England and Wales showed the average number of house sales in the three months to October fell to a new low as a lack of mortgage finance stifled potential buyers.
RICS said the number of transactions per member estate agent during the period fell to 10.9, its lowest level since comparable records began in 1978. The worst hit area was London where they were reporting only six sales per surveyor the last three months.
"The general lack of mortgage finance remains a major blockage in the housing market for a large majority of would-be buyers," said Ian Perry, a spokesman for RICS.
RICS is hopeful sales will pick up in the coming months as sellers accept the market realities and drop their asking prices, and mortgage lenders pass on last week's startling 1.50 percentage point interest rate cut from the Bank of England.
With housing transactions at such a low level, RICS said 81.8 percent more of its members reported house price falls in the three months to October than rises, a slight improvement on the 84.5 percent negative balance in September.
The problems afflicting Britain's housing market were put in sharp relief earlier by a dismal trading update from housebuilder Taylor Wimpey PLC.
The company said it doesn't see a recovery in Britain's housing market in the near term and that it will in all likelihood have to make additional provisions against its land and work in progress in the absence of any improvement in current market conditions.
Taylor Wimpey said its current order book stands at 6,607 homes, 40 percent down on last year.
It added that it hoped last week's startling 1.50 percentage point base rate reduction from the Bank of England will be passed on by mortgage lenders to customers, helping the market to return to stability more quickly.
"Increased mortgage availability and a return of customer confidence remain the key requirements for a sustained market recovery," it said.
Shares in Taylor Wimpey fell around 6 percent after the update.
