The Competition Commission’s (CC) preliminary findings in its third report in seven years into the UK’s grocery sector have caused alarm in many quarters.

Organisations, such as the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), the Federation of Small Businesses and Friends of the Earth have all voiced concerns over the CC’s findings that the current situation offers shoppers unprecedented value, choice and convenience, and its recommendation that it should be made easier for supermarkets to open more stores to promote competition against the might of Tesco.

The BRC has described the inquiry as “costly and time consuming” and said it hoped it would be the “last for a long time”.

Tom Oliver, head of rural policy at the CPRE, said the report showed a depressing failure to care about the interests of local farming communities. “We are offered a bleak prospect of yet more ruthless price wars which undermine farmers' livelihoods and yet more land-hungry superstores in sprawling, car-dependent suburbs,” he said.

The Federation of Small Businesses was also unhappy with the CC and said the public had been let down. “Small retailers and suppliers are being squeezed out because of practices, such as selling items below the cost of production, bullying suppliers and increased parking fees in high street compared to free parking at supermarkets,” said spokesman Matthew Knowles.

And the group that called for the report in the first place was bitterly disappointed. Friends of the Earth said: “[The] report is a totally inadequate response to the growing power of the big four supermarkets. The commission acknowledges that supermarkets bully suppliers and reduce consumer choice, but then bizarrely recommends making it easier for them to expand.”

Andrew Simms, of the New Economics Foundation, said the findings were a “travesty”. “It is so bad it is almost comic,” he added. “Supermarket dominance is like a Chinese finger-trap and the CC is pushing us into a situation from which it will be increasingly hard to escape.”