Column 18.09.26 - Jack Abbott MP welcomes government action to tackle problems people face everyday

One of my priorities as the Member of Parliament for Ipswich is making life easier for people in our town. 

I know people have been struggling with the cost of living for a number of years, so I know we have to keep looking at ways to ease the pressure. That was a clear statement of intent from the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, too. 

People need practical changes that put fairness first, help people keep more of their hard-earned money, and show that politics can make a difference. 

The first measure is something all of us have encountered at one time or another: misleading discounts and subscription traps. 

We have all been there: a seemingly brilliant discount that turns out to be not much of a deal at all. 

Under our Government’s new plans, retailers will be banned from making misleading claims about discounts to dupe customers into a false sense of value. 

If something is advertised as half price, it should be half price.

Families deserve confidence that they are getting value for money, especially now, when every penny counts. 

We are also cracking down on subscription traps that quietly drain money from people’s bank accounts. 

UK consumers are spending £1.6 billion every year on subscriptions they do not want or use, with unwanted subscriptions costing people around £14 every month – a direct hit to family budgets already under massive strain. 

Now, businesses will need to provide clearer up-front information, regular reminders and much easier exit to contracts. Consumers will also benefit from a new 14-day cooling-off period after a trial or long-term contract renewal. 

These changes won’t change lives, but they will make a difference to people already struggling with the cost of living. 

On top of this, we are also clamping down on rogue traders who rip off hard-working families when completing home renovations.  

For too long, cowboy builders have been allowed to operate with impunity, taking people’s hard-earned cash and leaving half-finished, shoddy work in their wake. 

More than one in four adults who carried out home improvements over the past eighteen months experienced problems, with over one in three of these facing extra costs, losing £750 of their hard-earned cash on average. 

Families are left devasted. They haven’t just trusted someone with thousands of pounds, but with their most prized possession: their home. Heartbroken, they are forced to pick up the pieces, their homes and finances in tatters. 

Under the new measures, a new Approved Code will allow businesses to demonstrate higher standards of customer service, transparency and dispute resolution, helping distinguish reputable firms from rogue operators.  

The scheme will also include a new system to protect people’s money during building projects with payments directly linked to key project milestones, so people can be secure in the knowledge that their money will be protected whilst works are ongoing. 

People care deeply about the place they call home and they rightly expect clean streets and neighbourhoods they can be proud of.  

Yet all too often, they are forced to pick up the pieces left behind by illegal fly-tippers and organised criminals. That isn’t right. People shouldn’t have to accept waste crime as simply an everyday hassle they need to put up with. 

The Government’s sweeping new measures will mean those who dump waste illegally will face real consequences for their actions, by helping to clear up the communities they have harmed and covering the cost of putting things right.This includes increased fines, stronger powers to stop, search, seize, and crush vehicles used in illegal dumping and up to 20 hours of unpaid clean-up work.  

These announcements follow Andy Burnham’s action to cap bus fares at £2 and cut VAT from energy bills, and I have written previously about how we are easing the burden on families by capping uniform items, expanding Free School Meals, breakfast clubs and childcare, are well as scrapping the cruel two-child limit. 

These measures are all designed to do one thing: give people some breathing room and make Britain fairer.  

Targeted action to tackle the problems people face on a daily basis. Small changes that, when added up, really do make a difference.