Tesco to cut further £500m in costs to help offset Reeves’s tax rises

Supermarket deepens existing measures and forecasts lower profit for year amid price war with rivals

Tesco has said it plans to slash a further 500m in costs, as the supermarket chain tries to cushion the blow of Rachel Reeves's tax increases and invest in fighting a price war with rivals.

Britain's biggest grocery retailer said on Thursday it was deepening an existing drive to cut costs to help offset higher operating costs, as well as the 235m increase in its national insurance contributions (NICs) as a result of changes made by the chancellor.