An impending ban on buy-one-get-one-free junk-food deals could be delayed, after ministers were told to find “the fullest range” of measures to ease the cost of living crisis.
Checks on imported goods and requirements for records of staff working hours could also be suspended as part of the plan.
Steve Barclay, the Downing Street chief of staff, is leading an effort to find new regulation that could be delayed or existing rules that could be suspended to minimise costs to households facing a £1,100 hit to incomes this year.
He has told ministers on the domestic economic strategy committee to “consider what non-fiscal measures we might take to manage the pressure on household finances” as inflation surges and fuel bills rise.
Barclay has written to cabinet colleagues saying they “should be challenging themselves: testing whether existing assumptions about what is possible still stand in the face of the heightened pressure on households”.
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He said action could include the delaying of bills that might increase costs and the acceleration or introduction of measures to lower prices.
One measure being considered is a ban on promotional deals on junk food, which is a key part of Boris Johnson’s strategy to cut child obesity.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, is understood to want to suspend the plans to help the food industry and avoid a hit to family shopping bills.
The ban, originally due to come in to force next month, has already been delayed to October because of the pandemic.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the government efficiency minister, is said to be “sympathetic” to a delay, as is Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, who is critical of “nanny state” measures.
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Johnson is yet to come to a decision, but Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has privately expressed scepticism about anti-obesity measures and is unlikely to fight to keep the ban.
Any delay to the measure would be opposed by health campaigners. Caroline Cerny of the Obesity Health Alliance said: “Research has proved that promotions don’t actually save money, but lead to unplanned purchases and spending more.”
Kwarteng is also trying to speed up the scrapping of an EU rule that forces companies to keep written records of employees’ working hours, which the government estimates costs £1 billion a year for little benefit.
Post-Brexit border and custom checks are also likely to come under scrutiny in an effort to minimise the costs that are added to goods arriving in Britain.
The strategy committee is likely to make a decision next month.
