06:25 BST
Simon Jack and Emma Simpson
Business editor and business correspondent
Image source, ReutersThe government is urging UK supermarkets to limit food prices on key groceries such as eggs, bread and milk in return for easing regulations, the BBC understands.
It is understood the Treasury asked retailers to freeze price rises on certain products in exchange for an easing of packaging policies and a potential delay to rule changes around healthy food.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents supermarkets, has said the policy would “force retailers to sell goods at a loss”.
A Treasury spokesperson said it wants to do more to keep costs down for families and it “will set out more detail in due course”.
But the BRC has dismissed the policy as “1970s style price controls” while one retailer described the idea as “crazy” and the act of a “desperate” government.
Helen Dickinson, the group’s chief executive, says there is already “fierce competition between supermarkets”, which has driven down prices.