Category Archives: Consumer affairs

France to spend €200m on destroying excess wine as demand falls

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Fund aims to help struggling winemakers as they adjust to consumers’ changing habits

The French government has announced it is to set aside €200m to fund the destruction of surplus wine production in an attempt to support struggling producers and shore up prices.

Several major wine-producing regions in France, particularly the Bordeaux area, are struggling because of a cocktail of problems including changes in consumption habits, the cost of living crisis and the after-effects of Covid-19.

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Customer data used for unwanted romantic contact, UK poll shows

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Almost one in three people aged 18-34 have been messaged by staff after giving personal details to a business

Almost one in three people aged 18-34 have received unwanted romantic contact after giving their personal information to a business, a UK poll has shown.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called for recipients of such texts to come forward to help the regulator gather evidence of the impact of this phenomenon.

The ICO has an online form for people who want to report an experience of unwanted contact.

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UK’s LGBTQ+ community ‘more likely’ to face real hardship in retirement

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Data shows 44% at risk of struggling to afford food and heating after leaving workplace

Close to half of individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ are heading for a retirement where they are at risk of struggling to afford such basics as food and heating, according to new UK data.

Looking across various measures including amounts saved and pension scheme membership, researchers concluded that members of the LGBTQ+ community were “far more likely than the general population” to struggle in retirement.

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UK banks will have to ensure access to cash within three miles, ministers say

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Treasury hints at concessions on guarantee but banks will face fines for falling below minimum service level

High street banks will have to ensure customers can find access to cash within three miles of their local communities, and those falling below the minimum service level will face a fine, the government has confirmed.

After the closure of thousands of local branches in recent years, and the switch to digital payment methods, ministers are looking to banks to help protect vulnerable groups and elderly customers by maintaining present levels of cash access across the UK.

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UK windfarm red tape to cost billpayers £1.5bn a year, say analysts

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Analysis finds Treasury rules on new windfarms likely to stifle energy generation and keep bills high

New offshore windfarms will be strangled by government red tape, costing UK billpayers £1.5bn a year, an analysis has found.

The latest government auction for new offshore windfarms, due to be completed in September, could result in few projects making it through Treasury rules, according to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a non-profit organisation.

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Rail fare rises in England will not exceed 9% inflation figure in 2024

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Government confirms ticket price rises will be delayed until March and will be below retail prices index

Rail fare rises in England will not exceed 9% next year and will be delayed until March, the government has said.

Ticket costs used to increase in January in line with inflation as measured by the retail prices index over the 12 months to the previous July. On Wednesday the Office for National Statistics revealed last month’s RPI rate was 9%.

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Bailiffs making record profits collecting debt for councils in cost of living crisis

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Charities call for an end to the outsourcing of public debt as firms’ turnover rises nearly 50% in a year

Bailiffs hired by councils to recover unpaid debts have seen their profits rise to record levels during the cost of living crisis, company filings show.

Newlyn Group, which is hired by councils to recover unpaid traffic fines and council tax, saw its turnover from debt collection increase by 43.8% to £25.8m in the year to December 2022, while its gross profit rose to £15.5m. Company documents describe the figures as Newlyn’s “best ever results”.

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UK government urged to scrap 20% VAT on period pants

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Campaigners say absorbent alternative to tampons and sanitary towels should not be classed as garments

MPs, retailers and charities have written to the government urging it to axe the 20% VAT on period pants, the absorbent underwear designed to be worn as an alternative to tampons and sanitary towels.

Period pants are classed as garments but campaigners are asking Victoria Atkins, who as financial secretary to the Treasury is the minister responsible for VAT, to get them reclassified as period products in the chancellor’s autumn statement later this year.

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UK shop prices in first monthly fall for two years amid big discounts

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Clothing and footwear among items reduced most in July as retailers try to counter bad weather

The UK’s biggest retailers have reported the first monthly fall in shop prices for two years, as stores tried to tempt in customers with big discounts during July’s unseasonably wet weather.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said its annual shop price inflation rate, compiled with the help of NielsenIQ, had declined to its lowest level of the year, sliding to 7.6% last month from 8.4% in June.

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Rhodes wildfires are climate wake-up call, says UK minister

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Patrick Courtown sounds warning as evacuation flights head to Greek island to rescue stranded Britons

Wildfires in Rhodes are a “wake-up call” on the effects of the climate crisis, a UK government minister has said, as empty planes were sent to the Greek island to help bring home stranded Britons.

After a mass evacuation from parts of Rhodes, members of the House of Lords were told the situation was “stabilising” and there was no immediate need for the government to advise people to stop travelling there.

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UK supermarket food prices up by more than 25% in two years, says Which?

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Retailers should be forced to display detailed price information on loyalty card deals, says consumer group

Supermarket food prices have increased by more than 25% over the past two years according to the consumer group Which?, with the size of the rise reinforcing the case for retailers to be forced to display detailed price information on loyalty card offers and promotions so shoppers can find the best deal.

Which? said the government needed to close loopholes that result in “confusing and inconsistent” pricing practices of some supermarkets. Last month it reported Tesco to the UK’s competition watchdog because it does not provide unit prices – such as the price for each 100g or 100ml – for the loyalty card offers it uses as a sales tactic to pull in shoppers.

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UK savings: more accounts now offering 6%-plus interest

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Government-backed NS&I increases its rates, as building societies and banks launch better deals

Amid the mortgage misery, there was more good news this week on savings rates, with a growing number of accounts now paying 6%-plus interest.

Meanwhile, the government-backed NS&I – a favourite of many in these uncertain times – has upped the rates on some of its popular fixed-rate accounts.

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International Energy Agency warns of higher bills this winter

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Fatih Birol says China’s economic recovery combined with harsh winter could pile pressure on gas supplies

The head of the International Energy Agency has said energy prices may spike again this winter, forcing government to subsidise bills – just days after state support for UK households fell away.

Fatih Birol said a rapid improvement in the Chinese economy, coupled with a harsh winter, could put pressure on gas supplies and push up bills for consumers.

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Councils in England hit by ‘unsustainable’ £450m bill for free bus passes

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LGA says services being put at risk by huge cost and calls way Whitehall funds scheme not fit for purpose

Councils in England are being hit by a “completely unsustainable” annual bill of more than £450m to prop up the free bus pass scheme, according to an analysis.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which calculated the figure, said the enormous cost was putting services at risk.

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Direct Line ordered to review five years of car claims after underpayments

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Insurer told to reassess vehicle write-offs to identify any unfair settlements

Britain’s second-biggest car insurer, Direct Line, has been ordered to go back through five years of claims after admitting it had underpaid some customers who had their cars and vans written off.

After an investigation into the car insurance market that began in December 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), this week ordered Direct Line to conduct a review of claims where vehicles had been written off “to identify any policyholders who received unfair settlements and provide them with appropriate redress”.

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Water firms push for bills in England to rise by up to 40%, say reports

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Plans drawn up to pay for cost of dealing with sewage crisis and climate emergency

Water companies are reportedly pushing for bills in England to rise by up to 40% under plans being drawn up to pay for the cost of dealing with the sewage crisis and the climate emergency.

The increases are due to be announced next year and could drive annual bills up from an average of £450 to £680 in parts of the country by the end of the decade, according to a Times report citing consultation documents.

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‘We’re kicking ourselves that we didn’t do a five-year mortgage fix in 2021’

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Anguished families talk about how the Bank of England’s 13th consecutive interest hike is affecting them – and their fears for the future

Liam, 36, a senior IT manager and married father-of-one from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of millions of homeowners whose mortgage payments will rise even higher after the Bank of England on Thursday put up the base interest rate to 5% – a 15-year high.

Together with his husband, Liam bought his four-bedroom house in 2019 for £269k, and the couple’s three-year mortgage deal, refixed at 1.64% in 2020 just before the first lockdown, expired in March.

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From Brexit to Beyoncé: why UK inflation is still so painfully high

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The cost of living is falling in Europe and the US but is still rising in Britain. We look at the major culprits

The Bank of England has struggled to understand why inflation remains high in the UK. It has fallen in France, Germany, the US and especially Spain, where inflation dropped to 2.9% in May compared with the UK figure of 8.7%. Here we look at the many reasons for the current crisis.

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Investigation reveals UK’s freshest and least fresh online groceries

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Shoppers for consumer group Which? ordered 1,800 items to test the average shelf life at six retailers

From out-of-date frankfurters to bashed brie, online food shopping can be a lottery, especially when it comes to the groceries’ shelf life, according to an investigation by the consumer group Which?.

Groceries delivered by Sainsbury’s were found to have the shortest average time left before their use-by dates, according to the items received by a team of 12 mystery shoppers located around the UK.

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UK government urged to outline plans to help with winter energy bills

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Report by cross-party MPs criticises previous ‘lack of urgency in addressing market failures’

MPs have urged the government to set out its plans to protect households from high energy bills this winter as they said about 1.7 million people, including some of the most vulnerable groups, had been left waiting too long to receive previous support.

The public accounts committee (PAC) said that although schemes were introduced quickly, the government “did not have the bandwidth” to make sure help reached all groups in a timely fashion.

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