For the first time in more than two months, Somerfield has replaced Waitrose as the UK's most expensive retailer, while Asda reached a 10th week as the cheapest. Somerfield's £49.43 basket reflected a 49p increase in the price of Cadbury Dairy Milk and a 20p increase to its own label soft scoop vanilla ice cream. But the main increase that made Somerfield's basket more expensive than Waitrose's was a 30p hike on the Hovis wholemeal loaf, making it the final retailer to succumb to pressure to raise its price. Aside from a paltry 8p cut to its Cadbury Dairy Milk, Waitrose, which had a £48.69 basket price, made no price changes that affected this week's list. It provided nine of the most expensive items compared with 17 at Somerfield. Asda's winning £39.56 basket included four of the cheapest products on the list and its pork chops were more than £2 cheaper than at Somerfield and Waitrose. The retailer clung to the cheapest position despite raising the price of Whiskas catfood, prepacked baking potatoes and parsnips. The gap between regular runner up Morrisons and Asda widened this week after the former ramped up the price of red seedless grapes by 50p. Morrisons' own label dried spaghetti was the most expensive on the list at 49p. However, it stayed ahead of Tesco by offering the cheapest Cadbury Milk, Whiskas catfood and bagged iceberg lettuce on the list. The price of Cadbury Dairy Milk has been fluctuating across the retailers, but Tesco couldn't match the low price of £1.20 at Asda, Sainsbury's and Waitrose, and instead added 8p to its price. Tesco also increased the price of pears and broccoli by 55p and 40p respectively. However, it offered the cheapest prepacked potatoes on the list at 50p. Sainsbury's was in the middle of the table with a £43.34 basket. The saving it made from cutting 40p from broccoli and 10p from the free-range eggs was cancelled out by a 40p hike on parsnips and an extra 10p on the spring onions.

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