By: SHAMLAL PURI, Senior Editor UK & Associate Publisher, London
shamlalpuri4@gmail.com
The new British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has announced that he will be rolling out a series of ‘everyday fixes’ to help people with the cost of living, kicking off with two measures on Sunday.
This follows his week-one action to cap bus fares and make energy bills more affordable for millions of households.
This country has earned the label of ‘Rip-Off Britain’ where companies of all sizes, including insurance, loan sharks and digital services providers, have no compunction about fleecing their customers, threatening to use the tough arm of the law to hit consumers below the belt.
Earlier this week, he wasted no time in ending subscription traps, with new “easy to exit” rules brought forward to help consumers cancel easily and prevent them losing more money.
Many subscribers are hit by a double whammy of penalties if they dare to cancel their subscriptions or if they have been inadvertently tempted to subscribe to a service which they regret later on.
He has also taken action to tackle misleading discounts and rip-off prices that fleece customers.
This is just the start of a series of ‘everyday fixes’ that will be announced to ease the cost of living and give families in England room to breathe.
The Prime Minister has announced that he will be rolling out a series of ‘everyday fixes’ to help people with the cost of living, kicking off with two measures on Sunday.
In the New Year, pretend prices and deceptive deals will be a thing of the past under the Prime Minister’s plans to ban retailers from making misleading claims to customers about discounts.
Shoppers have increasingly complained about outlets artificially inflating prices to give a false sense of value, such as increasing them only to then immediately advertise ‘discounts’ to make savings look larger than they really are.
This includes discounted prices being the same as they were before the discount, intended to trick consumers into thinking they are getting good value whilst saving them nothing and creating an uneven playing field for honest competitors.
The Prime Minister also wants to see an end to subscription traps, where people find it hard to cancel their subscriptions and contracts are automatically renewed at a higher cost.
New rules will now come into force in January 2027, in time for when customers often start new subscriptions for the year ahead.
Saving an average of £14 a month for every unwanted subscription, the changes will mean businesses will need to provide clearer up-front information, regular reminders and a much easier exit to contracts. A new 14-day cooling-off period will also let consumers cancel after a trial or long-term contract renews.
With British households still watching every pound, it’s right to act to restore fairness. There are around 155 million active subscriptions in the UK, with consumers spending an estimated £1.6 billion a year on ones they don’t actually want, a direct hit to family budgets.
For the many businesses who already give customers plenty of notice before subscriptions renew and make it easy for contacts to leave, very little is changing. They will benefit from clearer rules and a more level playing field, without being undercut by competitors who have more complicated processes that rip off consumers.
Certain charitable memberships for cultural and heritage organisations will be excluded from the new subscription rules given the unique role they have in preserving and opening up access to the nation’s history, landscapes, and cultural collections.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: “I know people are sick and tired of rip-off discounts and subscription traps. Westminster has got used to telling people that everyday hassles like this are just part of life. I don’t think that’s right, especially when the cost of living continues to weigh heavily on so many people’s lives.
“I’m determined to pull every single lever we can to provide people with some room to breathe on the cost of living.”
He added: “We’re putting an end to phoney bargains. If something is advertised as half price, it should actually be half price. We’re also making it as easy to leave a subscription as it is to join.”
“These are just two of the everyday fixes we’re going to be rolling out – today is just the start. We want to put more money in people’s pockets and give people hope that politics really can work for them and their everyday lives.”
A statement from Downing Street said the Prime Minister is determined to use every chance he gets to restore fairness and take pressure off people. This is the start of a series of practical, everyday fixes that will put more money in people’s pockets, give them greater peace of mind, and make life a little easier.
A consultation will launch this autumn to assess whether tactics such as fake “was” prices, invented discounts and misleading recommended retail prices (RRPs) should be added to the list of practices banned under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA).
Under current laws, it can be difficult for enforcers to take on these cases. Adding these tactics to this list would mean they will automatically be considered unfair, making it easier to crack down while making rules simpler for businesses to follow.
Welcoming the move, Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “There’s nothing worse than realising you’ve been fleeced by a dodgy deal, or seen money leaving your account because of a subscription you didn’t want to renew or couldn’t easily cancel.”
“This Government is on the side of families working hard to make ends meet, while making sure the rules are clear for businesses and easy to follow.”
Sue Davies MBE, Head of Consumer Rights Policy at Which?, said: “Which? has repeatedly exposed businesses, including trusted household brands, ripping off customers with dodgy deals that aren’t what they seem – but regulators have often found it too difficult to take action.
“It’s great news that the government intends to tighten up the law and explicitly ban misleading pricing practices, while putting an end to subscription traps.”
The government must implement these rules swiftly to give consumers much-needed protection against sneaky pricing tactics and hold businesses to account with tough enforcement, including fines, if they fall short.
Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said: “For too long consumers have been tricked into paying for products or services they don’t use – or didn’t even want to begin with – costing millions of pounds each year. So we really welcome the government’s move to speed up action on subscription traps and look at banning other tactics firms use to catch consumers out.”
“At Citizens Advice, we’ve sounded the alarm on this for years, because we know subscription traps and sneaky online practices that hit consumers’ pockets hard are a widespread problem. We previously found that over 13 million people (26% of UK adults) accidentally took out a subscription in a year.
“People shouldn’t have to waste their time and effort avoiding dubious online tactics and fixing unwanted purchases and sign-ups.”
The announcement is an important move, but it can’t be the end of the story. “We look forward to seeing the detail in the consultation on deceptive online pricing and how it will ensure consumers are protected and treated fairly.”
Helen Undy OBE, CEO of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, said: “It can be hard for anyone to spot a misleading discount, but this is particularly difficult for people with mental health problems who can struggle with concentration, impulsivity and decision-making, which can make it harder to resist pressure selling tactics and compare prices to get a fair deal.
“This group is already at the sharp end of the cost of living crisis – people with mental health problems are three times as likely to currently be behind on some or all household bills – so it’s good news that the government is taking action to help tight budgets go further, and it must happen quickly.
“It’s also encouraging to see that the subscription trap protections will be brought forward. We know that the symptoms of mental health problems such as increased impulsivity and memory problems can contribute to someone signing up without realising and forgetting about a subscription. We’ve long argued that it should be as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up – and as ever the proof will be in how companies put this into practice.
“Today’s announcement is good news – however, subscription traps and misleading discounts are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to unfair practices that make it harder to get a fair deal when you’re struggling with your mental health. We look forward to working with the government to see what further action can be taken in future.”
What defies belief and logic is why the previous governments, including the last Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, failed to act on this and other elements that make life difficult for British families. These leaders merely used lip service to sympathise and pass their time in 10 Downing Street.
