Ministers rush to dampen fears of panic-buying in runup to Christmas

The Government was last night rushing to dampen fears that staff shortages, soaring energy bills and global supply-chain woes will lead to panic-buying in the run- up to Christmas.

Toys, clothes, chocolate and toilet rolls are among products that could become more scarce within weeks as manufacturers wrestle with soaring costs.

The Confederation of Paper Industries said sectors including food packaging could also be impacted. Director general Andrew Large warned that costs could ‘go up through the roof’.

Meanwhile, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that around one in six British shoppers has been unable to buy essential food items at stores over the last fortnight.

It came as a survey of 1,000 people by retail magazine The Grocer suggested two-thirds were worried or very worried at the prospect of food and drink shortages over Christmas.

Cabinet Office Minister Steve Barclay sought to allay fears by pledging the Government’s support for the private sector and saying that the Army could be deployed.

Mr Barclay’s intervention lays bare concern across Whitehall that supermarkets could be confronted with the kind of scenes recently witnessed on forecourts.

A number of major companies have warned that there may be shortages this winter. Nestle said it was facing challenges that could hit the availability of products including Quality Street chocolates, and Walkers Shortbread in Scotland is facing difficulties due to a lack of staff.

Hundreds of thousands of shoppers have already booked their delivery slots for Christmas. Waitrose saw 22,000 slots booked by lunchtime on the first day of releasing its dates last week.

Mr Barclay’s intervention lays bare concern across Whitehall that supermarkets could be confronted with the kind of scenes recently witnessed on forecourts

Boris Johnson has hired former Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis as his new supply chain crisis tsar and has tasked him with clearing ‘blockages’ and ‘pre-empting potential future ones’. 

According to the ONS study, 17 per cent of adults found that the essential food items they wanted to purchase were unavailable. Almost a quarter found the same problem with non-essential food items.

Mike Watkins, of analysts NielsenIQ, said: ‘Shoppers tend to leave most of their Christmas grocery shopping later in November, but this year we’re seeing late-November demand brought forward into October because of the concerns consumers have heard about.’

Aldi said it was hiring 1,500 temporary staff for the Christmas rush.

Meanwhile, the fuel crisis was continuing to ease this weekend – although up to a third of retailers in the South East reported having either no or limited supplies. 

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisted supply levels are ‘close to normal range’, but research by the Petrol Retailers Association’s found 12 per cent of filling stations have run out of fuel in the South East and 17 per cent have only one grade of diesel or petrol.