Scotland Targets Big Grocers With Strict Price Limits On Daily Staples
SNP Scottish First Minister John Swinney is doubling down on plans to impose legally binding price caps on daily essentials like bread and milk.
The plans will force shops to limit prices on the likes of milk, bread, eggs, cheese and other staple items.
Swinney also introduced a £2 bus fare cap, so Holyrood clearly has erm big aspirations for our Gaelic brothers and sisters north of the border.
The draft legislation applies to grocery retailers employing over 250 people with an annual turnover exceeding £250 million, where grocery sales account for more than 50% of revenue. So the big shops.
This targets major supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Aldi, Asda, Lidl, and Iceland, as well as online retailers like Ocado.
Supermarkets who don’t play ball face unlimited fines.
The only problem with food pricing in historical communist command economies characterised by state-set fixed costs is that they do not work.
By capping prices without fixing energy and transport costs, Scotland risks supply shortages as well as leaving retailers to up prices on un-capped goods.
Business Minister Tom Arthur said: “Helping people with the cost of living is a top priority of this government. Our aim is to make essential food items more affordable for households struggling to pay for their weekly shop, particularly those on lower incomes.
However David Thomson, Chief Executive Officer of Food and Drink Federation Scotland, said that the “proposals are causing major concern across Scotland’s food and drink supply chain.”
“Food price caps will not address the underlying causes of food inflation. Food and drink manufacturers continue to face high energy, labour, commodity, packaging and regulatory costs. Capping the shelf price of selected products does nothing to remove those costs and will simply push them elsewhere,” he added.