On the 20th of May 2010 the new British government presented the Coalition Programme for Government. The document entails a range of measures that concern consumer protection.
Financial services
The Coalition Programme criticizes that the current system of financial regulation was fundamentally flawed and needed to be replaced with a framework that promoted responsible and sustainable banking, where regulators had, inter alia, greater powers to curb unsustainable lending practices.
In addition to measures to introduce a banking levy and to tackle unacceptable bonuses, the Coalitions Programme also entails provisions to create a free national financial advice service. This service should be funded in full from a new social responsibility levy on the financial services sector.
Further measures in the sphere of consumer protection
The Coalition Programme entails also further measures to enhance consumer protection. These include:
- The regulator should be given new powers to define and ban excessive interest rates on credit and store cards.
- Honesty should be introduced in food labelling so that consumers can be confident about where their food comes from and its environmental impact.
- Households’ control over their energy costs will be increased by ensuring that energy bills provide information on how to move to the cheapest tariff offered by their supplier, and how each household’s energy usage compares to similar households.
For further information, see: http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2010/05/The_Coalitions_Programme_for_Government.aspx
Source: The Coalition: Our Programme for Government