One in five Londoners were unable to purchase essential food items in the past two weeks, new research can reveal.
19 percent of people in London could not buy essential food items in the past fortnight – making London the second-worst place in the UK for food shortages, after the South East and the East Midlands. The research also found that nearly one in four Londoners were unable to purchase non-essential food items in the last two weeks.
The research, conducted by delivery management experts Urbantz, used new ONS data on goods shortages to analyse the percentage of people in the UK who were unable to access essential food between the 22nd of September and the 3rd of October.
The study also found that 12 percent of people in London bought less food than usual between 22nd of September and the 3rd of October as a result of the shortages.
One in six Londoners reported that when they went food shopping, items they needed were not available and they could not find a replacement, while half said that there was less variety of food in the shops than usual. Another one in six London residents were also unable to purchase fuel in the last fortnight
On a UK-wide level, 17 percent of people struggled to buy essential food items in the last fortnight, and 15 percent of people couldn’t buy fuel. The North East and the East Midlands were the areas worst hit by food shortages, with 21 percent of people in those regions unable to buy essential food.
The South East and the East of England were the regions which struggled most with fuel shortages. In the East of England, nearly a quarter of residents could not buy fuel, and in the South East, 22 percent of people were unable to access it – 57 percent higher than the national average of people unable to purchase fuel.
A spokesperson for Urbantz, which conducted the study, said:
“With the country facing significant delivery of food and other essentials, it’s important to look at the experiences of families in the UK, and what they have dealt with in the past two weeks when trying to shop for food, medicine and fuel. The impact of the driver shortage is felt across the entire supply chain, all the way through to the last mile – where consumers are faced with fewer choices at checkout and longer delays on their deliveries due to retailers’ struggles to keep their warehouses stocked.
Urbantz is a last mile delivery management platform for enterprises designed to respond to the delivery needs of retailers, logistics operators, e-commerce, grocery suppliers and more.
