As the constituency MP for Esher and Walton, I recently responded to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s ‘Modernising Consumer Markets’ Green Paper, which can be found here.
I started taking a closer interest in consumer issues and policy because they are commonly raised with me in letters from constituents, in surgery meetings and during discussions with local businesses and groups, including our Citizens Advice Bureaus.
Over the last few years I have distilled much of this feedback into a report summarising the issues and concerns (as well as some proposals for reform) that I have received locally.
These ideas range from ways to reinvigorate the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to make it a stronger consumer champion to proposals to reform the energy, mobile phone, broadband and currency exchange markets to empower consumers and deliver better deals.
Given the local salience of consumer issues, I wanted to convey the feedback through to this welcome government consultation in a structured way. You can read the submission here.