Fish and chips is renowned as one of the nation’s favourite dishes but in recent years spiralling costs have pushed up the price of the traditional fare. A chip shop in Bradford sold portions of the dish at 1970s prices this week to celebrate updates to its shop. BBC News went along to ask people whether a full price-portion is still value for money amid a cost-of-living squeeze.
Hundreds of people lined Leeds Road in Bradford on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. The street has a myriad of shops and hot food options but the queue which snaked along the pavement was only interested in one – fish and chips.
The Mother Hubbards takeaway was selling portions for just 45p – similar to the price when it opened more than 50 years ago.
Gary Sargent had made the short trip down the M62 to try and get his hands on the dinnertime deal before it sold out. “We’ve been before and it’s usually £18, but for 45p you can’t go wrong can you? I’d have it more but the prices they charge nowadays is ridiculous.” “You’re lucky to get vegetables for under a quid at the moment, so obviously we’ve got to take advantage of this,” Lee Stewart explains from his spot in the queue.
The increase in the cost of the dish in the past few years is partly due to a combination of increased energy and labour costs, sanctions on Russian seafood due to the invasion of Ukraine and poor potato harvests. Prices paid to UK farmers for potatoes were also up last year according to figures from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ Agricultural Price Index.
Accompanying his mum to the chippy was Naveed Amini. “A bottle of ketchup was £1 a year and a half ago, now we’re paying £2.50 or £3.” It has gone up considerably. His mum Sultana Amini, 69, remembers a simpler, cheaper, time. “I remember when it was 3p for fish and chips”, she says, adding that “you can’t even get just chips” for 45p. “Everything is sky high,” Mrs Amini adds.
Pravin Ladd, 69, was driving along Leeds Road when he noticed the queue of people outside his local chippy. That was when he remembered about the 45p deal, so he pulled up and joined the queue. “If you buy fish and chips it’s usually £10,” he says – adding that cooking yourself is not much cheaper. “When I do my own cooking and I buy a bit of fish it costs £6 or £7, then you add everything else. Everything has gone up.”
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