Jersey shoppers forced to cut back as a basket of food goes up by 51%

Alex Spiceley reports...

ITV News has compared the current prices of 100 items on Jersey's Consumer Council's price comparison site to how much they cost in February 2022.

We took a selection of 10 everyday items and found that their overall price has gone up by 51% since last year.

The items which cost £21.77 last year now cost £32.89, with rising inflation and the knock-on effects of Brexit to blame.

Pensioner Margaret is one of many islanders desperate to find a good deal in the shops.

Recently she has been struggling to afford her weekly shopping and now eats just a sandwich for lunch and another for dinner.

She says: "Every time I go shopping £10 goes nowhere. I've just bought a few things from the Coop and it was £10."

Carl Walker from Jersey's Consumer Council said: "The costs of all goods that people are putting into their shopping baskets are on the rise and that impacts every single one of us.

"For a place like Jersey you wouldn't expect it to have a number of foodbanks, and what's happening now is that the type of person that would typically use those foodbanks has changed."

Neville Benbow from the Shelter Trust said: "Supermarkets have got to look at themselves and say can we do better?

"They should provide good value food for everybody in the population.

"It's no good putting up prices and hoping people will pay it because it is difficult."

Jersey's Chief Minister, Deputy Kristina Moore, told ITV News that the government is "fully focused on dealing with short-term issues."

She added: "That's why we brought in our mini budget right at the start of this term of office and now we're looking at those harder-to-do, medium-term structural issues and we're absolutely focused on resolving them."

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