Future Of British Business

Cheap Food in Britain Is About to Become a Thing of the Past

Cutthroat competition among retailers helped keep prices low for years, but that’s changing as costs soar.

Cutthroat competition and innovation has helped keep food prices in the UK among the cheapest globally for decades.

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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The decades-long era of cheap food in Britain may be coming to an abrupt end.

With the U.K. wilting under the fastest inflation in three decades, supermarkets are raising prices at an even quicker rate, according to a new analysis prepared for Bloomberg. That’s turning the screws on shoppers who are already grappling with higher gas and heating bills and falling real incomes.