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British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged a crackdown on hard-to-cancel subscriptions and misleading discount claims, Downing Street said Sunday, as part of a broader push to ease the cost-of-living crisis facing UK households.
The announcement coincides with Burnham's return to work following a vacation and the launch of a nationwide tour aimed at hearing directly from people about their financial pressures, his office said.
Burnham said in a statement that people are "sick and tired of rip-off discounts and subscription traps," referring to services that are difficult to cancel or that automatically renew at higher prices. He said his government intended to make it "as easy to leave a subscription as it is to join."
Downing Street estimated that British consumers currently spend around £1.6 billion, or $2.2 billion, annually on subscriptions they do not actually want.
Under new rules set to take effect in January, businesses will be required to provide customers with clearer up-front information, regular reminders and a simpler process for exiting contracts, according to Downing Street.
The government also announced a new 14-day cooling-off period allowing consumers to cancel after a free trial ends or a long-term contract renews, though officials did not detail how the measure would be implemented.
Burnham additionally vowed to address misleading discount claims that rely on inflated original prices.
The subscription reforms come as Burnham begins a "cost of living tour" that, according to the Mirror newspaper, will span all of the United Kingdom's constituent regions, including Port Talbot, an economically depressed former steelmaking town in Wales.
"I'll be asking one question: what would actually make your life better?" Burnham told the newspaper.
The tour reflects an approach Burnham has emphasized since taking office, after spending nearly a decade as a regional mayor in northern England. He has repeatedly said he wants to push politics outside of Westminster, Britain's traditional seat of government, and engage more directly with communities across the country.
The subscription and discount measures build on a series of early initiatives from Burnham's government. Since entering office, he has pledged to draw up a 10-year plan for the country and has already introduced a tax cut on energy bills that were driven up by the US-Iran war, a cap on bus ticket prices and reduced business rates for pubs.
Opposition politicians on both the right and left have criticized these measures as insufficient to address the scale of the cost-of-living pressures facing British households.
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