The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) and the Forum for Private Businesses (FPB) both want regulators to limit the expansion of the big supermarket chains, particularly when this involves setting up local convenience stores.

Nick Goulding, chief executive of the FPB, which represents 25,000 small businesses, said that 50 small shops were closing every week. “It is critical that the Government uses its powers to stop the Tesco/Asda/Sainsbury juggernaut from eradicating high street shops altogether by 2015,” he said.

David Rae, chief executive of the ACS, said that the Government needed to look at ways to help independent retailers to survive. He said: “Unless something is done, there will be a lot of communities left without a local shop.”

MPs launched the inquiry in an effort to discover how Britain’s high streets might look by 2015 and whether supermarket mergers are bad for consumers.

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