According to reports, the program will be voluntary, and retailers will be able to choose which commodities to offer at the lowest price.
Downing Street is reportedly drafting plans to encourage supermarkets to impose voluntary price caps on food staples to alleviate the cost of living crisis.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that the programme would oblige stores to sell milk and bread at low prices.
According to a source at Number 10, the plans are still in the “drawing board stage” and will not involve government-imposed price restrictions.
A Treasury source told the Sunday Telegraph, “Food inflation is considerably more resilient and difficult to eliminate than we anticipated.”
The paper reported that supermarkets would be permitted to choose which items they would limit and that participation in the initiative, modeled after a similar accord in France, would be entirely voluntary.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt accepted interest rate hikes to combat growing inflation, even if they caused a UK recession.
Despite falling from 10.1% to 8.7%, the Consumer Price Index of inflation remains high, and experts have warned that food prices will soon surpass energy costs as the “epicenter” of the cost of living crisis.
After rising 19.1% in the year to March, food prices are expected to rise further, straining families.
