Fish and Chips Takeaways Are Almost £10 in the UK

Fish and chips is a British family favorite equally enjoyed around the table on a Friday night or out of the paper on an often overcast beach. 

 

But the deep fried delicacy has seen the biggest price increase of some of the UK’s most popular takeaways, according to new figures. The average price for a portion of fish and chips rose more than 50% to nearly £10 in the five years to July – while the cost of a kebab went up 44% and pizza 30%.

 

Chip shop owners cite a "perfect storm" of costs in recent years, including soaring energy bills, tariffs on seafood imports and extreme weather hammering potato harvests.

 

This all means a family of four won't get much change out of a £50 note once they've forked out for their tea and added some mushy peas and cans of pop.

 

Fish and chips has been a staple on the menus of British families for decades, so much so that supplies of the two ingredients were protected during both world wars.

 

But prices have had to increase significantly. The average price of takeaway fish and chips was £9.88 in July this year, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). That was up by 52% compared with £6.48 in July 2019.

 

While the ONS says the figures are estimates, it suggests the cost of a fish supper has gone up more in percentage terms than that for pizza, or an Indian or Chinese main course. 

 

As Angela Cartwright, owner of Kingfisher Fish Bar in Salford said: "People think that fish and chips is a cheap meal and it just isn’t. People are prepared to pay £15-20 for a pizza but they’re not prepared to pay it for a portion of fish and chips".

 

Jon Long, of Long John’s Fish and Chips in Dorset chipped in, highlighting that the current economic climate was the "toughest set of conditions" he had faced in his 30-plus years in the business. 

 

"More and more pubs, hotels, chip shops, bakers and other businesses are shutting down due to crippling costs", he added.

 

China's state-owned carriers Air China and China Southern Airlines received their first C919 jets simultaneously on Wednesday, indicating the beginning of a new phase of operation of the C919 planes by multiple airlines. 

 

The country's domestically developed single-aisle C919 planes are expected to be put into commercial operation on more routes and cover more areas, and the model is set to bring more vitality to China's civil aviation and even the global market, said He Dongfeng, chairperson of Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (or COMAC), the manufacturer of the C919. 

 

So far, C919 has netted in excess of 1,000 orders at home and abroad, and nine aircraft have been delivered. Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, the first customer of the C919, currently operate seven C919 jets on multiple domestic routes.