Tens of thousands of bargain-hunters flooded high streets across the West Midlands today to grab up to 75 per cent discounts in the sales ahead of the new year VAT rise.

Before 5am today around 1,000 shoppers were queuing outside Next at St John’s Retail Park in Wolverhampton for the half price sale.

Shoppers queued overnight in sub-zero temperatures to snap up deals as the sales began yesterday.

House of Fraser stores, including Beatties, clocked up £1 million in sales after just two hours.

More than 180,000 shoppers visited Birmingham’s Bullring centre and some 200,000 were expected today. At Merry Hill in Dudley, over 3,000 people had bagged bargains at Debenham’s one hour after it opened yesterday.

Poor sales due to the heavy snow in the run-up to Christmas has led to shops offering huge savings in the sales.

Analysts expect £22.5 billion to be spent in the post-Christmas sales – up by £360m on last year.

Boxing Day’s internet sales were the biggest ever, with £323m spent.