There are a couple of reasons why the price of imported goods are higher in the U.K than US/Europe/Japan partly down to VAT, import duty etc, partly down to high property prices which feeds into higher wage demands and high rental costs.
You may also argue that various employment/trade/health & safety regulations have the effect of adding increased costs.
However, the main reason why prices are currently high in the U.K is that the £ has been devalued against dollar, yen and euro by around 30 to 40 percent since the credit crisis of 2008. Hence making imported goods more expensive than they were in 2007.
Devaluation, which incidentally was caused by quantitative easing and has been exasperated by 0.5% interest rates is great for the erosion of national debt through inflation, but not so great, if like the U.K is, a net importer of goods priced in dollars, yen etc.
An example of the hugely damaging policy that the bank of england and the government has embarked upon with regard to inflation and devaluation is fuel prices. During the crisis of 2008 oil rose to $150 a barrel yet petrol never rose above £1.20l. Today oil is trading at around $84 yet petrol is close to £1.40l
You also need to factor in the huge amount of quantitative easing that has gone on in america, which has caused a general spike in commodity prices globally.
Bit of a rant, but thats the main reasons.
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22-08-2011
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