The government looks set to row back on plans to ban multi-buy deals for unhealthy foods after the prime minister signalled her opposition to the policy in her conference speech.
Liz Truss used a section of her speech at this week’s Conservative Party conference in Birmingham to rail against interventionist government policies. “I’m not going to tell you what to do, or what to think or how to live your life,” said Truss. “I’m not interested in how many two-for-one offers you buy at the supermarket.”
Measures that restrict volume promotions of foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) such as buy one get one free (BOGOF) deals are due to come into effect in October 2023, a year later than first planned. The delay was enacted by Boris Johnson’s government citing cost of living pressures.
However, a ban on promotions of HFSS products in prominent retail locations such as aisle ends and checkouts did come into force at the start of this month despite fears from campaigners of a last minute government U-turn.
Malcolm Clark, policy manager at Cancer Research UK, told The Grocer: “This is obviously much better than the worst-case scenario which we’d been led to believe, but originally we had been hoping that both sets of HFSS restrictions would be implemented on 1 October so it’s not the best case either. We have also seen with this government that it only takes a few lines in parliament to reverse major strategies so we will have to remain on our guard and keep the pressure on government.”
Truss also used her speech to restate her priorities in government: to drive growth by cutting taxes and delivering supply side policy change including deregulation.
She spoke about “simplifying red tape” and reducing “burdens on businesses” and pledged that by the end of 2023 “all EU-inspired red tape will be history”.
Her agenda has put Truss’s government on a collision course with environmental NGOs who fear protections for nature will be undermined by repealing EU laws along with a drive to establish investment zones across the country in which planning rules are relaxed.
