Help to cut baby formula costs could save parents up to £500, Starmer says | Consumer affairs
Keir Starmer said the government has decided to implement a scheme aimed at reducing the cost of buying baby food.
The announcement comes ahead of the government’s child poverty strategy being unveiled later in the week and follows the removal of the two-child limit for benefits in last week’s budget, a move Starmer mentioned several times at Wednesday’s PMQs.
Ministers will adopt a set of proposals made by the Competition and Markets Authority in February aimed at helping inform parents about baby food products that are nutritionally cheaper than best-known brands, such as supermarket own-label products.
The measures will include the use of standard packaging in hospitals and other health care centers to stop the influence of marketing on new parents, and rules specifying that all baby food products must be displayed together in stores.
People will be allowed to use gift cards, vouchers, loyalty points and vouchers to pay for baby food; this is something that has been banned in the past due to efforts to block baby food deals to encourage breastfeeding where possible.
Starmer said the measures could save parents up to £500 in the first year of a child’s life. “For too long, parents have been forced to overspend on baby food, leaving them hundreds of pounds out of pocket while being told they were paying for better quality food,” he said. “Today I can announce we’re changing that. We’ll be taking action to give parents and carers the confidence to access baby food at more affordable prices.”
Starmer linked the move to the end of the two-child benefit limit, which he repeatedly emphasized in talks with Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.
Starmer, whose move was challenged by Badenoch, said: “Their nearly 10-year policy on the two-child benefit cap has had one result and only one result: it has driven hundreds of thousands of children into poverty. They should be completely ashamed of that, and I’m very proud that we’ve lifted half a million children out of poverty, because I truly believe every child should have a chance at life.”
In a later announcement detailing the baby food scheme, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “It is not right that manufacturers can package these products in a way that plays on the instincts of new mums and dads trying to do the right thing for their children.
“These new measures mean parents will have confidence in the formula they buy, regardless of price, and they can now also make the most of supermarket loyalty programmes.”
