THE cost of a basket of basic groceries in the city has soared by more than five per cent in two years, an Oxford Mail investigation has found.

The Bank of England announced last week the rate of inflation stood at 3.1 per cent – above its two per cent target – with food prices a major driving force in increasing bills.

A shelf check of a major city supermarket two years ago showed a bumper rise in the cost of the weekly shop.

And this week we compared the same basket of shopping, which included eggs, milk, cheese and fruit.

The findings, from the Tesco store in Cowley, showed the price for the average shop had risen by 5.13 per cent.

In May 2007, our shopping basket cost £30.93, which had risen to £35.47 by October 2008.

And in our shop on Tuesday, it cost a grand total of £37.29 – nearly two pounds more.

The price of a standard tub of margarine had rocketed from 86p to £1.40.

Jenny Wilson, deputy manager at the Agnes Smith Advice Centre in Blackbird Leys, said she was not surprised by the price rises.

She said: “We get a lot of people who come in and say they are finding the cost of living is too high and they can’t afford to feed their families.

“More than 30 people come in every week, lots with debt worries and asking about benefits.

“Often there are not any benefits that could help them, so it’s hard to tell them that.”

Ms Wilson believed the next round of welfare cuts would only make the problems worse.

She said: “One of the problems is that people see Oxford as an affluent city and forget there are pockets of real poverty.

“We’ve had parents coming in who say they’re going without food so they can feed their children.

“And one woman came in here recently who was only living on jam sandwiches because it was all she could afford.

“We are in this for the long haul with people losing their jobs and food prices continuing to rise – there doesn’t seem to be any let-up.”

Susie Drohan, the manager of Oxford Community Work Agency and Barton Advice Centre, said they also had a lot of people with debt concerns.

In the first six months of 2010, the centre gave advice to 821 people – 105 about debt worries and 196 asking for help claiming benefits.

Mrs Drohan also believed people were increasingly worried about food costs in the wake of frozen wages and redundancies.

She said: “We advise people to budget realistically but it worries them, especially with all the talk about welfare cuts.

“Families on the breadline get very anxious, because they’re the ones who rely on public services the most. There is also a lack of understanding.

“People know the banks lost money, the Government bailed them out and now have to claw back money – but it doesn’t make sense to most people.”

James Wiggam, spokesman for Tesco, said: “We do our best to keep prices down for our customers, ensuring they can benefit from the many special offers and promotions we run on a daily basis.”

rpope@oxfordmail.co.uk

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