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- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- 2003
- 10 reasons supermarket mergers are bad for consumers, farmers and small businesses
- Asda spinach over pesticide levels
- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- Biting back at GM crops
- Blair sacks Meacher
- Committee Stage for Recycling Bill
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- Cumbria goes GM-free
- Deplorable attack on GM scientific critic
- Devon votes to go GM-free
- Dorset demands caution over GM crops
- EU commission calls for GM contamination of organic food to be allowed
- EU meets US over GM trade war
- Farmers and consumers must have a say in Wal-Mart takeover
- Fat cats fight over Safeway, consumers and farmers are real losers
- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- Garden pesticides health warning
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM beet research answers very few questions
- GM contamination - Government experts disagree
- GM jury challenges FSA policy on labelling
- GM public debate fiasco
- GM study highlights need for urgent rethink over GM crops
- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- GM trade war accelerates
- GM won't cure hunger in Africa
- GM-free food could be "impossible"
- Government agrees to delay GM debate
- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- Government launches GM debate
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- Government must address GM debate chaos say groups
- Government must clarify role of GM debate
- Government opposes tough Euro GM rules
- Government report on economics of GM crops
- Government to publish GM science review
- Government urges MEPs to vote for GM food
- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- Hundreds of pesticides banned
- Hundreds turn out for Waste lobby
- Illegal GM contamination threat
- Is Tesco spin on Safeway takeover a joke?
- Lake District National Park first to go GM-free
- Lake District National Park to host GM debate
- Local campaigners call for GM-free Britain election pledge
- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- Ministers try to stop GM food labels
- Morrisons take-over bad news for consumers
- MPs call for extension to GM national debate
- New analysis casts doubt on GM farm scale evaluations
- New maps reveal massive extent of GM pollution threat
- Pesticide review fails consumers and farmers
- Recycling Bill clears the Commons
- Safeway decision must wait for code review
- Sainsbury's: making life taste bitter for banana growers
- Scepticism as GM debate ends
- Second reading for Recycling Bill
- Shameful EU plans for growing GM crops
- Shropshire goes gm-free
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- South Gloucestershire votes to go GM-free
- South Hams votes to go GM-free
- Stop Safeway stitch-up, alliance demands
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarkets continue to shun GM food
- Supermarkets must be blocked from Safeway takeover
- The US ghost fleet – behind the hype
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- Uncertainty over GM safety
- US files WTO GM complaint
- US threat over GM food
- Warwickshire goes GM-free
- Why the Safeway take-over must be stopped
Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report8 May 2003
Friends of the Earth welcomed the publication of Checking out the supermarkets II, a report by Liberal Democrat MP Colin Breed into the practices and problems of supermarket retailing. Friends of the Earth said that it highlighted the lack of Government action to address the problems associated with the dominance of the big supermarket chains.
The report, which comes as the Competition Commission grapples with the pros and cons of allowing Safeway to be taken over by a rival supermarket, describes the range of problems already associated with the concentration of power in this sector. It also shows how supermarkets have been allowed to grow at the expense of the public interest, undermining local economies, eroding consumer choice and creating problems for people with no access to a car. The plight of UK farmers struggling to make a living against the unreasonable demands of the supermarkets is also stressed.
One policy area which comes under particular criticism in the report is the planning system. Although Planning Policy Guidance (PPG6) was revised in 1996, with the specific objective of protecting town centres, Breed's report points out that the destruction of local economies has continued apace. The call for an overhaul of planning guidance to deal with the dominance of the big chains and their incursion into every aspect of retailing is again very well timed, with PPG6 currently up for revision and a new Planning Bill progressing through Parliament.
Speaking at the report's launch, Friends of the Earth Real Food Campaigner, Sandra Bell described how Asda/Wal-Mart is making a mockery of planning guidance by exploiting a loophole in the planning system. By installing mezzanine floors in existing Asda stores for non-food goods, the company does not even have to submit a planning application to the local authority. This leaves the local authority powerless to assess the impact of the expansion on local shops or traffic levels, and local communities with no say in the development.
"This report is very timely," said Sandra Bell. "The Government is currently grappling with the pros and cons of a Safeway takeover and the updating of our planning system. Politicians must sit up and take notice of this litany of negative impacts from the rise of the big supermarkets. If supermarkets are so beneficial, why have we ended up with more food poverty, struggling local economies, farmers leaving the land, and less choice of where to shop?"
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