Tesco now controls over 30% of the grocery market in the UK. In 2009, the supermarket chain announced profits of over £3bn. Growing evidence indicates that Tesco's success is partly based on trading practices that are having serious consequences for suppliers, farmers and workers worldwide, local shops and the environment. Read our demands

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NEWS ROUND-UP

Sheringham - Tesco plans thrown out again
On Thursday 4th March Councillors approved plans for the eco-friendly Greenhouse Community Project and once again threw out proposals for a Tesco in Sheringham. The decision, voted in by a majority of 10 to six, could need to be reconsidered if North Norfolk District Council officers decide it could not be defended in a legal challenge. For more information please see an article in the Eastern Daily Press, 4th March 2010 and The Independent, 4th March 2010.

Government to set up supermarket ombudsman
The Government has announced today that it will accept the Competition Commission's recommendation to establish a new supermarket ombudsman to enforce the new supermarket code of practice and protect suppliers from abuses of power by the big retailers. Read the Government announcement here and an article in the Farmers Guardian, 13th January 2010.

Conservatives: supermarket ombudsman needed to ensure a fair market  
Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference on the 5th January, Shadow Environment Secretary, Nick Herbert called for a new age of agriculture and pledged a future Conservative Government to create a supermarket Ombudsman to curb abuses of power by the major food retailers. He committed a future Conservative Government to create a supermarket Ombudsman as a dedicated unit in the Office of Fair Trading.  For further information please see an article in the Times, 4th January 2010.

New planning policy
New streamlined planning guidance, Planning Policy Statement 4, which combines town centre and economic development policy into a single streamlined statement, was published by the Govenment on the 29th December. The revised guidelines keep the important 'sequential test' for town planners, which requires the most central town centre sites to be developed first for shops, leisure and offices rather than out of town sites that lure high street shoppers away, but removes the "need test".  The Association of Convenience Stores is concerned that the new policy will "weigh heavily on underresourced planning departments in local councils, who will have to interpret and implement a policy that is ambitious, contradictory and highly subjective. Ministers have a long way to go to convince us that the new policy will be effective in preventing the highly resourced and determined supermarkets from imposing unwanted new developments on communities." Please see an article in the Times, 30th December 2009.