Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of reliance on smaller convenience stores by people living in poverty on the cost of living for those households.

No specific government assessment has been made of the impact of reliance on smaller convenience stores by people living in poverty on those households’ cost of living, although you will be aware of extensive research on this issue.

Food and other essentials make up a greater share of spending for lower-income households. Office for National Statistics data shows that households in the bottom income decile spending 15.6% of their total expenditure on food and non-alcoholic drinks, compared with 10.9% across all households.

The Government is taking action to support households with the cost of living, including through:

• Extending the temporary 0% rate of VAT on qualifying domestic electricity supplies in Great Britain until July 2027. This extension is expected to take around £50 off the annual Ofgem price cap in April 2027.
• Providing a further £2.6 billion of support through a £100 Household Energy Payment for households in England in council tax bands A-D, benefitting up to 20 million households. This includes 83% of households in fuel stress and 88% of low-income households
• Cancelling the plan to add 5p back on to fuel duty from January, and extending the cut by a further 6 months
• Suspending tariffs on all UK imports of over 100 food products – expected to reduce consumer costs by £120-185 million per annum
• Announcing a £2 bus fare cap on single tickets in England outside London for a year from 1 January 2027, meaning millions of passengers could save up to a third off a single journey