Britain's 'Be Ready' campaign sparks rush for tinned food and wind-up radios in England and Wales

People in England and Wales are rushing to buy tinned goods and wind-up radios after the launch of the British government's 'Be Ready' campaign.

Launched on October 22, the campaign urges citizens to be ready for a national emergency. In the 10 days since the launch, sales of bottled water have risen by 67 percent, tinned and jarred food by 37 percent and hand sanitiser by 83 percent, according to retail research firm Worldpanel by Numerator. Wind-up radios, torches and power banks have also sold out at several retailers.

British Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, the campaign's most prominent public face, says the government wants people to be alert but not alarmed.

Be Ready is a three-year public information campaign being run by the Cabinet Office. Its launch on October 22 marked its first stage.

The government is asking households in England and Wales to make sure they would be able to cope on their own for 72 hours if electricity, water, phone and internet services all fail in a national emergency. The idea is that emergency services can then focus on people who require more urgent assistance.

The campaign's website features a checklist, starting with bottled water and long-life food that does not need to be kept in a fridge, such as tinned food, dried fruit and nuts.

It also recommends having a torch, spare batteries, a charged power bank and a wind-up or battery-powered radio, along with cash in case card payments go down, a first aid kit, medication, warm clothing and blankets to hand.

The new website covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland receive their own advice through Ready Scotland and NI Direct.

More than 500 organisations, including charities, businesses and faith and community groups, have signed up to spread the message.

Officially, the focus of the campaign is to ensure households can get through everyday emergencies such as storms, floods, wildfires and burst water pipes. The campaign follows months of heatwaves, drought and fires across the United Kingdom this summer.

The government also highlights how unprepared Britons say they are. In a Cabinet Office survey this year, only 13 percent said their household was largely or totally prepared for an emergency, while 84 percent wanted more advice from the government.

Independent research points the same way. A 2025 survey of 931 people by Bournemouth University's Disaster Management Centre found that only 52 percent felt they understood the hazards they faced, and 21 percent said they were not aware of the risks at all. The same study found that 81 percent were willing to do more to prepare.

In September, the National Audit Office, the UK's spending watchdog, warned of threats facing Britain's food supply chain. Ministers have also linked the campaign to the risk of cyberattacks and hostile state activity against critical infrastructure.

The UK is also catching up with its neighbours. The European Commission's Preparedness Union Strategy, adopted in March 2025, recommends that people be able to cope alone for at least 72 hours. Sweden posted 5.2 million copies of its crisis-preparedness brochure to households in November 2024, and Finland, Poland and the Czech Republic run similar campaigns.

Shoppers have acted fast. Supermarket chain Iceland said sales of tinned products rose 40 percent over the first weekend. Worldpanel found the equivalent of 400,000 extra people a day bought tinned meat immediately after the launch.

Electronics retailer Maplin said torch sales jumped 284 percent, radios 92 percent and power banks 106 percent within days. Hardware store group Robert Dyas reported a 160 percent rise in radio sales, and at least seven wind-up radio models sold out across several outlets.

Criticism has focused on tone more than substance. On BBC's Question Time, an audience member accused Streeting of scaremongering, warning that the advice would trigger panic buying. Streeting replied that the campaign was about everyday threats such as wildfires, flooding and frozen pipes.

Opposition figures have largely accepted the principle. Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary Tom Tugendhat called the advice a perfectly reasonable thing.

But more than 180 experts, academics, farmers and community food leaders signed an open letter warning that 29 percent of Britons cannot afford a three-day food reserve. They urged ministers to set up national, regional and community food stores rather than rely on the resilience of individual households.

On November 2, Parliament's Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy took evidence on public preparedness. Among the witnesses was Lee Miles, professor of crisis and disaster management at Bournemouth University, who led the study of household resilience.

His research found that 75 percent of households had no major measures in place to cope with climate change, and about 69 percent were willing to spend no more than one day improving their preparedness. Miles told the committee that the challenge was to turn the 'Be Ready' campaign into a 'Being Ready' campaign, and warned that local resilience bodies would need proper funding.