PRIME MINISTER Andy Burnham has vowed to crack down on hard-to-cancel subscriptions and fake discounts as part of measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, Downing Street said Sunday.
The announcement came as the new Labour leader was due to return to work after a vacation and begin a tour of the country to speak to people about their financial pressures, his office said.
Burnham said "people are sick and tired of rip-off discounts and subscription traps", where subscriptions are difficult to cancel or automatically renew at a higher cost.
Burnham to begin UK tour with cost of living measures
He said his government would be "making it as easy to leave a subscription as it is to join".
British consumers are currently "spending an estimated £1.6 billion a year on (subscriptions) they don't actually want", Downing Street said.
New rules will come into force in January next year and will require businesses to provide customers with "clearer up-front information, regular reminders and a much easier exit to contracts", it said.
The government also announced a new 14-day cooling-off period, allowing consumers to cancel after a trial or when a long-term contract renews. It did not explain how the measure would be implemented.
Burnham also promised to tackle "misleading claims to customers about discounts" based on inflated full-price figures.
After nearly a decade as a regional mayor in northern England, Burnham has stressed his desire to move politics outside Westminster.
The Mirror newspaper reported that his "cost of living tour" this month would cover all the United Kingdom's constituent regions and include places such as Port Talbot in Wales, an economically depressed former steelworking town.
"I'll be asking one question: what would actually make your life better?", Burnham told the left-wing newspaper.
On entering office, the prime minister promised to draw up a 10-year plan for the country.
His first announcements included a tax cut on energy bills inflated by the US-Iran war, a cap on bus ticket prices and cutting business rates for pubs.
Opposition politicians on the right and left have criticised the measures as not going far enough.
