No point in food price measures without targeting small stores, Which? warns

Inside a Sainsbury’s Local. Which? found budget range items were available less than 1% of the time at supermarkets’ convenience branches. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Shutterstock

UK ministers’ efforts to reduce soaring food shopping bills “won’t touch the sides” without measures to make small grocery stores more affordable for low-income households, the chancellor has been warned.

Which?, the consumer group, has written to Jeremy Hunt over concerns that a blanket approach to lowering supermarket bills will not address the problem of accessibility to affordable food, after reports that ministers are considering a voluntary price cap scheme.