Discounter Lidl ramped up pressure on the major UK supermarkets today by announcing it will spend £220m on 20 new stores, creating 2,500 jobs.

Half of households in the UK shopped at Aldi or Lidl over the past three months as the discounters captured more of Britain’s grocery spending.

Discount supermarket chain Lidl wants as many as 1,500 stores in the UK under plans to build on its rapid growth of recent years.