The Co-op has announced a major investment as customers are set to notice some price changes in its 2,300 UK stores over the next 12 months. The supermarket, which is the sixth-largest in the UK by number of stores, has pledged to make several moves to help customers through the current cost-of-living crisis. Its £1bn “Back Britain” plan comes after the Budget announcement, and will see prices slashed for both members and non-members across the country.

Prices will be slashed on more than 1,000 products in Co-op’s 2,300 stores nationwide over the next 12 months. Co-op has also pledged to British sourcing, community-led retailing, and skills development. The company says the move reinforces its “belief that responsible business must play its part in tackling the cost-of-living crisis”. A survey by Co-op revealed that 58% of participants list the cost-of-living crisis as one of their top three concerns. This figure is up from 51% in late 2024.

Shirine Khoury-Haq, Co-op Group CEO, said that its commitment to “facilitating over £1 billion of spend into the UK economy over the next year” sees its “biggest ever number of price reductions to help with the cost of living, continued investment in British farmers and suppliers, and a focus on keeping high streets vibrant and safe.”

The £1bn investment will have a focus on categories that support British farming, produce, protein and dairy. Co-op’s investment will “extend lower prices beyond just Co-op members”, in a bid to support “the 15 million weekly transactions that occur in Co-op shops and to help families manage weekly budgets”. 

Co-op also pledged to spend more than £700m a year with British farmers and agriculture suppliers, maintaining its 100% British fresh and frozen meat commitment across all own-brand products.

The supermarket said it will invest in another 100 stores over the next 12 months, including new openings and revamps to existing stores. Recently, Co-op announced that it was opening a record number of stores in the space of seven days as part of its growth plans. 

It has also pledged a £38m annual spend on crime prevention measures, including body cameras for workers and extra security staff. 

Additionally, Co-op has set a target of creating 7,000 matched apprenticeships by 2030 through its Levy Share service. It already spends £1 million a year on its 38 Co-op Academies. 

The FTSE 100 slumped to a dismal new low as Rachel Reeves delivered her maiden Budget.

The Chancellor announced a hike in taxes by £40 billion as she promised to “fix the foundations” of the economy and repair the public finances.

The FTSE index at 1.30pm was down by 53.87 (0.66 percent) compared with the start of trading, having dipped sharply by 40.14 points first thing, before rallying.

In the first Labour Budget since 2010 – and the first ever delivered by a woman – Ms Reeves promised to “invest, invest, invest”.

But she said the “black hole” left by the Conservatives requires tens of billions of additional taxes.

Ms Reeves claimed the scale of the public spending problems she inherited were worse than previously thought.

She said the £22 billion “black hole” left by the Tories in this year’s finances showed they “hid the reality of their public spending plans”, with problems recurring in future years.

Ms Reeves also promised to set aside £11.8 billion to compensate those affected by the infected blood scandal and £1.8 billion to compensate victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.

The Chancellor said: “Together, the black hole in our public finances this year, which recurs every year, the compensation payments which they did not fund and their failure to assess the scale of the challenges facing our public services means this Budget raises taxes by £40 billion.

“Any Chancellor standing here today would face this reality.

“And any responsible Chancellor would take action.”

Responding for the Conservatives, former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Rishi Sunak was scathing in his criticism.

He said: “The truth has come out.

“On the day that he took office, the Prime Minister said that he wanted to restore trust to British politics with actions, not words.

“Well today, his actions speak for themselves with a Budget that contains broken promise after broken promise and reveals the simple truth that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have not been straight with the British people.

“Time and again, time and again, we Conservatives warned Labour would tax, borrow and spend far beyond what they were telling the country. And time and again, they denied they had such plans.

“But today, the truth has come out, proof that they planned to do this all along, because today’s Budget sees the fiscal rules fiddled, borrowing increased by billions of pounds, inflation-busting handouts for the trade unions.”