A Government minister has insisted caps on supermarket prices are not being looked at after retail chiefs said they are being urged to introduce them.
Reports claimed the Treasury had approached chains urging them to put limits on the price of key goods like eggs, bread and milk in return for easing regulations. But Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson said this not the case.
He told Sky News: “No, that isn’t something that we’re looking at.” Asked if there had been conversations, he stated: “You have to talk to the supermarkets about that.
“The Government is not looking at doing this. Instead, what we’re doing is looking across the economy at what are the different ways that we can help households.”
According to the Financial Times, the Treasury told retailers it would offer supermarkets “incentives” – which may include easing packaging policies and delay potentially costly changes to healthy food rules. This would be agreed to by retailers on a voluntary basis. It would not emulate the strict price controls brought in during the inflation crisis of the 1970s, it was claimed.
It comes after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said food and soft drink prices rose by 3% in the 12 months to April, down from 3.7% in March.
Mr Tomlinson went on to tell LBC: “There will be ministers across government who are talking to the supermarkets all the time, and this specific thing that’s made into papers, I just want to be clear, this isn’t something that we’re considering.
“I think our supermarkets sector is a really important and vital sector. It’s highly competitive. I think you’ll have the same experience as me – you can spot the price of milk in one shop and walk down the road and see it’s five or 10p more expensive and think, ‘Oh, I will go to that shop from now on’.
“So, look, I don’t know the ins and outs of all the conversations that every minister across government has had with every supermarket chain in the last few weeks, but the specific story that’s reported, not announced today, that isn’t something that we’re considering.”