Retailers are absorbing additional costs due to the US-Israel war in Iran, including rising gas and electricity prices, the BRC said, on top of additional employment costs in recent years from increasing employer National Insurance contributions and the national living wage.  

Regulatory changes, including guaranteed hours provisions under the Employment Rights Act and the proposed reformulation of food lines under the new Nutrient Profiling Model, are also imminent.

Polling by Opinium for the BRC found that 80% of participants expected that the conflict will push up food prices, while 73% expected it to raise the price of other products.

Meanwhile, 81% were worried about rising energy bills, 76% about petrol and diesel, and 68% about tax increases.
 
Helen Dickinson, chief executive, the British Retail Consortium, said: “The middle east conflict is driving up costs across the supply chain and families are right to be concerned. But not every pressure bearing down on retailers comes from the Gulf. Higher national insurance, packaging levies, new regulations, and business energy charges are all domestic policy decisions, made in Westminster, and they can be addressed there. Such action by government would help retailers to keep prices affordable for households.
 
"Other governments are already acting. Germany has reduced electricity costs for businesses by moving levies off bills and EU leaders are actively discussing similar responses to this crisis. The UK should be moving in the same direction, not treating global instability as cover for inaction on costs of its own making.
 
“Retailers are working hard to hold prices down, but they cannot do it alone. Every cost government chooses not to address is a cost that will find its way into someone’s shopping basket. That is a political choice, and it is one ministers still have time to change – but the window to act is closing.”