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Sarah O’Connor’s insightful article flags the dangers of prioritising low prices and efficiency over resilience (“The hidden costs of powerful buyers and cheap prices”, Opinion, September 21).
As she explains, labour costs have been compressed, workers and suppliers stretched to the maximum by powerful buyers and this has kept prices artificially low. But when there is a shock (such as Covid or Brexit) the system falls apart.
Ten years ago it was recognised that large supermarkets were too powerful relative to their suppliers. A supermarket watchdog, the Groceries Code Adjudicator, was set up to ensure that large retailers didn’t subject their suppliers to unfair trading practices.
The UK fashion sector needs a fashion watchdog, similar to the one for supermarkets.
Earlier this year the House of Commons environmental audit select committee recommended the government set up a garment trading adjudicator (or watchdog) for the fashion sector.
This would address the huge power imbalance between large garment retailers, brands and their suppliers. A watchdog would need resources proportional to the number of fashion retailers and brands under its scope. Just as the supermarket regulator does, it would need to be able to act on information provided by suppliers irrespective of their location, and have the ability to apply strong financial penalties (to outweigh the profits made by those mistreating their suppliers).
Only by setting up a watchdog can we start to reduce the abusive purchasing practices of fashion retailers and brands, as a crucial step towards improving workers’ rights, health and safety, and environmental protections.
Fiona Gooch
Senior Private Sector Policy Adviser, Traidcraft Exchange, London SE11, UK
