Downing Street is believed to be drawing up plans to encourage supermarkets to introduce voluntary price caps on food staples in a bid to help with the cost-of-living crisis. The scheme would aim to get retailers charging the lowest possible amount for some basic products like bread and milk, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
A No 10 source said the plans are at “drawing board stage” and stressed they would not involve Government-imposed price controls. A Treasury source told the Sunday Telegraph: “Food inflation is much more resilient and difficult to get rid of than we anticipated.”
Supermarkets are expected to be allowed to select which items they would cap and only take part in the initiative, modelled on similar agreement in France, on a voluntary basis, the paper reported. It comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt backed interest rate hikes, even if they risk of plunging the UK into recession, in order to combat soaring inflation.
