The government’s food tsar has blamed Britain’s “weird supermarket culture” for shortages of certain vegetables.

Henry Dimbleby said “fixed-price contracts” between supermarkets and suppliers meant that when food is scarce, some producers sell less to the UK and more elsewhere in Europe.

But the body that represents supermarkets denied that business was hampered by such contracts.

Several supermarkets have limited sales of fresh produce in recent weeks.

Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are among those vegetables in scarce supply, largely because of extreme weather affecting harvests in Spain and North Africa.

Shortages are said to have been compounded by high energy prices impacting UK growers, as well as issues with supply chains.

They also come as households are being hit by rising prices, with food inflation at a 45-year high.

As an example of “market failure”, Mr Dimbleby, who advises the government on food strategy in England, said UK lettuce prices in supermarkets were kept stable, regardless of whether there was a shortage or over supply.

Regulated rail fares in England and Wales are increasing by up to 5.9% as campaigners call for reforms due to unreliable services.

The increase is above last year’s 4.8% hike but far below the rate of inflation.

The government said that it did not want to add to pressures on households.

However, some groups said that after months of poor services and strikes, passengers are not getting value for money.

About 45% of fares are regulated – they are directly influenced by the government. These include most season tickets, travelcards, and some off-peak returns.

Train operators said fares needed to be set at an appropriate level for the rail industry and its customers.

Paul Drew, of Drews of Worcester, says his energy costs have risen from 15p per kilowatt to 62p per kilowatt.

To speed up growth he has the option to artificially heat and light his crops, but fears the rising cost will make it unprofitable.

The tomato grower said: “You’d like to think you can plan for it, but I really don’t know how we will survive this year.”

Across the county, some farmers have told the BBC that they have switched off heating and lights earlier this winter – either delaying or cancelling planting.

At its conference in Birmingham last month, the National Farmers Union (NFU) revealed domestic production of salad crops will reach its lowest levels since records began this year.

Speaking on Politics Midlands, Ms Gideon said: “I know the NFU have asked for horticulture to be included in the energy intensive industries.

“We need to be producing more in this country in order to guarantee our own food supply, we need to be helping farmers to do that.”

While supermarket shelves in Worcestershire appear to be sparse, independent grocers remain plentiful with stocks of imported fruit and vegetables sold a higher price.

Jim Thompson, of Three Counties Produce, explained: “A box of tomatoes that we would normally pay £6 for, we are now paying £16.

“We’re paying a premium price but if the supermarkets decided to sell the product at the price it should be, then they would have them on the shelves.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has rejected calls to prevent sharp rises in domestic energy bills for all households in his March budget – meaning millions of users will see costs soar by about 40% from April.

Instead, Hunt will emphasise the extra support he is giving to the poorest and most vulnerable households, including those on benefits, in what he will describe as a more fairly targeted system of support.

Demands for the Treasury to halt a planned rise in the energy price guarantee (EPG) – the discounted cost of gas and electricity to consumers – from £2,500 to £3,000 a year for the average household in the March budget have been growing in recent weeks, particularly as the wholesale cost of energy has been falling.

Because an additional £400 of extra government help with energy costs for all households, made in monthly payments since October, also ends in March, the effective rise for all but those on the lowest incomes will be about 40%.

Calls for Hunt to stop the rise in the EPG have been led by consumer champion Martin Lewis, founder of the website MoneySavingExpert.com, who has said the move would be an obvious “rabbit out of the hat” that the chancellor could afford to pull out of his red box in March.

The Labour party has also been calling for the rise in the EPG to be stopped, and for the extra costs to the government of doing so to be met through the proceeds of a more punitive windfall tax on the vast profits of energy companies.

British households are only halfway through a two-year cost of living crisis, with average incomes likely to fall by more than £2,000, a leading thinktank has warned.

Typical disposable incomes for working-age family households are on track to fall by 3% in this financial year, and by 4% in the year to April 2024, according to the Resolution Foundation.

Only incomes of the very richest will rise, according to the thinktank’s annual Living Standards Outlook for 2023, while middle-income households will struggle to make ends meet after an average £2,100 loss.

The warning comes amid a rash of strikes by workers demanding pay rises closer to the average inflation rate of 10.7%.

A vote by teachers is expected to back strike action when the ballot results are announced over the next fortnight, adding more than 500,000 public sector workers to a tally that includes nurses, Whitehall civil servants and Border Force staff.

People selling their homes have typically had to settle for below the asking price in recent weeks, according to Zoopla, which is predicting house prices will fall by about 5% next year.

The average price achieved in recent weeks has been 3% below a seller’s asking price, when for much of 2021 and the first half of this year it matched the asking price, the property website said. Zoopla said it expects discounts to increase further in 2023.

Since the start of September, one in nine homes have had their original asking price reduced by 5% or more, Zoopla said, and a quarter have had the price cut to some degree, according to the index covering the month of October.

Asking price reductions are greatest in southern England, where sales volumes have fallen the most, with almost one in three homes in the south-east and east of England reducing asking prices to attract demand, the report said.

Annual house price growth slowed to 7.8% last month, down from 8.1% in September and the lowest since November 2021, according to Zoopla data. Demand has fallen 44% since September’s disastrous mini-budget, which drove mortgage rates sharply higher and led to hundreds of deals being pulled from the market.

New sales have dropped by up to 50% in previous hotspots and areas where higher mortgage rates will hit buying power hardest – in southern England, east Midlands and Wales. Sales have fallen less in more affordable areas and in London where market conditions have been weaker. Zoopla expects mortgage rates to fall to about 5% at the turn of the year, from about 6% now for two-year and five-year fixed deals.

Business leaders in the north of England are warning rail services could “collapse into utter chaos” by January unless the government takes action.

Members of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership have written to ask the transport secretary to address a crisis they say is “wreaking havoc”.

Rail travel in northern England has been severely disrupted in recent months by strikes and cancellations.

The government agreed the current situation was “unacceptable”.

It said it was “investing billions” in northern transport and was “working closely with train operators” to resolve problems around the recruitment of new drivers.

But Juergen Maier, former chief executive of Siemens UK and a vice chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the government had failed to “use the levers only it can pull, to sort out or train services”.

Whoever becomes prime minister this week – most likely Rishi Sunak or Boris Johnson – will face the most daunting in-tray of anyone in No 10 for decades. These are the pressing issues they will have to make decisions on in the coming months ahead.

Fiscal plan

Sunak has declared that fixing the economy is his priority. The Treasury is facing a £40bn black hole and the interim chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is working on a plan to make the sums add up by 31 October but this will mean swingeing cuts. A new prime minister will have to make a call on how big the cuts will be – or whether to opt for tax rises instead.

Benefits

One of the biggest decisions on this front is whether to uprate benefits in line with inflation. Most of the centrists within the party believe this is essential and that any attempt to swerve this would not get through parliament.

Public sector pay and strikes

Public sector pay is similarly problematic when it comes to inflation. Nurses, healthcare staff, ambulance drivers, teachers, train drivers, civil servants, university lecturers and many others are considering strikes this winter in the face of real-terms pay cuts. The government may have to reconsider their settlements if it wants to avoid large-scale disruption to society.

NHS winter crisis and waiting lists

The NHS is in a dire situation heading into winter with the threat of a “twin” Covid and flu season, demoralised staff and long waits for operations, GP appointments, A&E services and ambulances. A new prime minister will have to take a decision on whether NHS spending should be ringfenced from cuts, as well as how to deal with the existing pressure on services.

Energy

The government has provided energy bill support until April but now will not say how much if any subsidy it will give people after that point. There is also the threat of winter blackouts if gas supply remains tight across Europe as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine. One of the first actions of a prime minister could be to announce a major energy-saving campaign – a move resisted by Liz Truss previously.

The cost-of-living crisis is hitting people living in rural areas harder than those living in towns and cities, according to a new report.

The study, by the Rural Services Network, says those in the countryside are spending much more on essentials like heating, transport and housing.

Facing “significantly higher” costs, they earn “much less” than their urban counterparts, the report found.

Since the pandemic, house prices have also soared in comparison to towns.

The study found that rural house prices are almost 40% higher than in urban areas across England (excluding London), with rural villages and hamlets increasing to 55% higher.

Meanwhile, rural households on a low income now spend about half of their earnings on rent – almost 5% more than low-income households in urban areas.

‘Families in fuel poverty’

Houses in the countryside also tend to cost a lot more to heat, as many are less well-insulated and are not connected to the gas grid.

The research shows that rural households need more than £500 to take them out of fuel poverty, which is twice as much as in urban areas.

The cost of getting around is also higher, as an estimated 3,000 rural bus routes have been “lost or reduced” in a decade, according to the Campaign for Better Transport.

Because of a greater reliance on cars, the data shows that rural households spend on average about £114 per week on transport, compared to £80 for urban households. This eats into a higher proportion of disposable income.

Despite these higher costs, rural employees with the lowest earnings face wages 12% lower than those working in urban areas.

Graham Biggs, chief executive of the Rural Services Network, which represents rural councils and other service providers, said: “Outdated infrastructure and a legacy of other factors, such as poor transport and broadband connectivity, employment opportunities and housing demand, means that many rural areas are more isolated than maps suggest and are all contributing to a higher overall cost of living.

“The government must overcome policy silos and develop an integrated approach that recognises the multiple forms of disadvantage rural areas face.

“This should include levelling up the rural economy to ensure that low wage levels can be improved, as well as supporting rural houses to become more energy efficient to help get families out of fuel poverty.”

A rural domiciliary carer has said that rising fuel costs are one of the reasons for the lack of staff.

Ash Turner works for New Dawn Care in Craven Arms, south Shropshire, and said the mileage she gets back, only just covers her fuel costs.

About 130,000 new care workers are needed each year in the UK just for the social care workforce to cope with current demands, Age UK said.

“I’m now out of pocket for insurance and wear and tear,” Ms Turner said.

“Before the fuel crisis, I would have had money left over if I needed my tyres doing,” she added.

Ms Turner said she paid about £100 a week to fill up her car and said on her days off, she thinks “can I go to Shrewsbury, can I do this because I need the fuel for work”.

As Ms Turner works in a rural area, she said she often has to drive up hills and down country lanes to reach her clients.

“We’ve got more problems working in a rural place, and there are loads of pot holes,” said the carer.

Rachel Wintel, manager at New Dawn Care, said they can only afford to pay 35p a mile.

“This is because currently local authorities aren’t able to pay travel time or mileage in the packets of care that we pick up, as providers we pay mileage and we pay travel time,” Ms Wintel said.

The lack of social care staff is also affecting the hospitals and ambulance wait times due to hospital staff “not being able to discharge patients who are medically fit to go home or to go into rest and rehabilitation care,” MP for south Shropshire and former health minister Philip Dunne said.