Publications
If you require any of our publications in Braille, large print or on audio CD please contact us.
A tangled web – Marketing to children
14 October 2010
This report researches current regulation and highlights where children are not adequately protected by either the law or industry self regulation. The aim is to try and disentangle the complexity of the regulatory landscape for parents on how they can best protect their children from unwanted advertising and for businesses to comply with statutory codes [...]
Stick or twist? – An analysis of consumer behaviour in the personal current account market
11 October 2010
We investigated switching in the personal current account market to look at whether it was likely to influence competition among banks and affect unfair charges. Our research showed that there is still a great reluctance among consumers to switch account providers. There also appear to be real problems with the switching process. This undermines efforts to [...]
Now cast for fuel poverty in 2010
10 October 2010
Consumer Focus is committed to helping the Government meet its target to eliminate fuel poverty in England by 2016. We consider this important to fulfilling our statutory duty to represent the interests of energy consumers, particularly those on low incomes. In response to calls for current fuel poverty data from many stakeholders, Consumer Focus commissioned [...]
Unleashing the new consumer power – Fresh thinking
1 October 2010
It used to be said that people in Britain just meekly accepted mediocre service and poor-quality products. But change is in the air. A new breed of more active, powerful consumers is emerging, people who are willing to throw their weight around when they need to. They are happy to work with smart businesses to [...]
Strictly unclear – Research into information on the cost of TV voting
10 September 2010
The premium rate services (PRS) market in the UK is both popular with consumers and lucrative for businesses. Viewers of TV’s The X Factor cast over 10 million votes in the programme’s 2009 final, using their mobile phones, fixed-lines and TV red buttons. The sector as a whole has generated some £810 million in 2009, [...]
Sink or Swim? – Post Office Outreach services in the long term
9 September 2010
In May 2007, following a UK-wide public consultation, the Government announced that Post Office Ltd (POL) would close 2,500 post offices, with 500 of these to be replaced by largely part-time Outreach services. The intention was that the programme, as part of a wider package, would restructure the Post Office network and ensure a viable [...]
Keeping the plates spinning – Perceptions of payday loans in Great Britain
26 August 2010
Concerns have been raised in the US and the UK over the level of consumer detriment caused by payday lending, which has led to interest rate caps in a number of US states, effectively banning the practice. There are concerns that the impact of the recession in the UK will drive greater numbers of consumers [...]
Annual Report and Accounts
26 July 2010
The coalition Government wants the UK to be the best place in the world for business. We believe that this goes hand in hand with the UK being the best place in the world to be a consumer. Achieving a better balance across the economy between the interests of consumers and the companies from which [...]
Cutting back, cutting down, cutting off – Self-disconnection among prepayment meter users
16 July 2010
Cutting back, cutting down, cutting off is the biggest ever study of prepayment meter (PPM) energy customers. It shows that around one in six pre-pay households, or up to 1.4m people, are living in homes that have cut off their own energy supply in the last year. The findings are particularly worrying as almost half of households [...]
Rethinking financial services
28 June 2010
Our Focus on Finance seminars helped us develop our policy on promoting the interests of consumers in the financial services market, to provide challenges to current thinking and stimulate new ideas. The work has provided a basis from which to develop our consumer agenda and guide our work in the future. Given the history of [...]