FIRST Minister John Swinney has insisted that the SNP’s plans for a food price cap remain unchanged despite pressure from business groups.
On Monday, 23 industry organisations signed a joint letter to the SNP leader asking him to drop his election pledge to introduce a statutory cap on some essential food and drink items, claiming it could “increase, rather than decrease, the cost of household goods”.
It comes ahead of the Programme for Government, which is due to be published on Tuesday and will set out what the SNP administration hopes to achieve over the next 12 months.
Ahead of the Holyrood elections in May, Swinney pledged to introduce legislation to cap the price of some supermarket items before the end of 2026. “Bold action is needed and it has to happen fast,” he said at the time.
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The First Minister also previously said that the devolved Scottish Parliament would not ordinarily have the powers to bring in the policy, but insisted it could do so under public health provisions because the cost-of-living crisis has “got so tough it is now impacting upon our nation’s nutrition”.
But the joint letter sent to him said that there are “differing views on how best to ease the cost of living, particularly for less affluent households”
The business organisations added: “We jointly believe the mooted statutory food price cap is unnecessary, ineffective, and likely to deliver significant adverse consequences.
“This is despite the assurances you have sought to provide to primary producers. The impacts upon retailers, food and drink producers, and shopworkers in themselves are undesirable but the effect will be to increase, rather than decrease, the cost of household goods.”
The letter is signed by David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium; David Thomson, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation Scotland; Lesley Cameron, chief executive of Scottish Bakers; and Judith Bryans, chief executive of Dairy UK, among others.
It continues: “A statutory cap would not address the root causes of elevated food prices: rising production, refrigeration, and distribution costs. Supply chain shocks after Covid and conflicts in Ukraine and Iran have pushed up fertiliser, fuel, and energy costs.
“Taxes on employment and packaging have – as the Bank of England has pointed out – added further pressure, with costs cascading through farming, food manufacturing, refrigeration and distribution.”
Swinney said, however, his plans for the price cap “remain as they were set out in the manifesto”.
Speaking to the Press Association, he said the government would “consult on these questions” but he insisted: “I’m keen to make progress on an issue that is causing real hardship for members of the public.”
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The First Minister stressed that food prices are “a significant part” of the cost of living challenges many families face, saying the “necessity” for the policy “remains absolutely the same”.
He added: “We are working to try to ensure the proposals we bring forward are strong and robust and they can deliver the assistance we want to see in place.”
The SNP’s manifesto said that the party would “take a public health intervention to establish statutory price ceilings on a basket of 20 to 50 essential food items at large supermarkets, such as bread, milk and eggs to provide tangible relief to families struggling with grocery bills, ensuring that necessities for a balanced diet remain affordable”.
It went on: “The system would require large supermarkets to make one example line of the listed essential food items available at the capped price and would not require them to make every variation of that type of food they stock available at that price.”
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