{"id":305765,"date":"2025-07-31T05:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T05:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/305765\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T05:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T05:09:11","slug":"budget-christmas-food-price-shock-looms-chancellor-warned-money-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/305765\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget: Christmas food price shock looms, chancellor warned | Money News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Food inflation will rise to 6% by the end of the year – posing a “significant challenge” to household budgets in the run-up to Christmas, industry leaders have predicted.<\/p>\n

The British Retail Consortium is warning that the chancellor risks “fanning the flames of inflation” if she hikes taxes in the coming budget.<\/p>\n

Despite intense price competition between supermarket chains, the BRC has sounded the alarm over the pace of grocery price hikes.<\/p>\n

As of this month, food inflation has risen 4% year on year – its highest level since February 2024.<\/p>\n

The BRC said this increase is linked to global factors, such as high demand and crop struggles.<\/p>\n

Beef, chicken and tea prices are among those that have risen the most this year – but some of the blame is being laid squarely at the chancellor’s door too.<\/p>\n

The BRC said it was inevitable that a \u00a37bn burden, through changes to employers’ national insurance contributions and minimum pay rules after last October’s budget, had been partly passed on to customers in the form of higher prices.<\/p>\n

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\"HMRC<\/p>\n

2:29<\/p>\n

Will we see tax rises in next budget?<\/p>\n

It published the results of a survey of retail industry finance chiefs to illustrate its point – that nerves about what Ms Reeves’s second budget could bring were not helping companies invest in either new employment or prices.<\/p>\n

Business was promised it would be spared additional pain after it was put on the hook for the bulk of the chancellor’s tax-raising measures last year.<\/p>\n

However, speculation is now rife over who will feel the pain this autumn as she juggles a deterioration in the public finances.<\/p>\n

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\"GURPREET\"<\/p>\n

3:33<\/p>\n

Options for wealth tax<\/p>\n

A widening black hole is estimated at around \u00a320bn.<\/p>\n

The cost of servicing government debt has risen since the last budget, while U-turns on welfare reforms and winter fuel payment cuts have made her job even harder – making further tax-raising measures inevitable.<\/p>\n

The survey of chief financial officers for the BRC showed the biggest current fear ahead was for the “tax and regulatory burden”.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds of the CFOs predicted further price rises in the coming year, at a time when the headline rate inflation already remains stuck way above the Bank of England’s target of 2%.<\/p>\n

It currently stands at 3.6%.<\/p>\n

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “Retail was squarely in the firing line of the last budget, with the industry hit by \u00a37bn in new costs and taxes.<\/p>\n

“Retailers have done everything they can to shield their customers from higher costs, but given their slim margins and the rising cost of employing staff, price rises were inevitable.<\/p>\n

“The consequences are now being felt by households as many struggle to cope with the rising cost of their weekly shop.<\/p>\n

“It is up to the chancellor to decide whether to fan the flames of inflation, or to support the everyday economy by backing the high street and the local jobs they provide.”<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

She concluded: “Retail accounts for 5% of the economy yet currently pays 7.4% of business taxes and a whopping 21% of all business rates.<\/p>\n

“It is vital the upcoming reforms offer a meaningful reduction in retailers’ rates bill, and ensures no store pays more as a result of the changes.”<\/p>\n

The Treasury has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Food inflation will rise to 6% by the end of the year – posing a “significant challenge” to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-305765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114946124380058417","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}