Building Better Markets: The case for expanding Citizens Advice's statutory advocacy and rights based advice model
Every day, consumers run into issues, or struggle to navigate the essential markets which govern their day to day lives. When things go wrong, it can be difficult to know where to turn, and people can find themselves in a web of systems trying to sort things out.
Building Better Markets looks at how we can start to reset the balance, giving consumers more power to navigate essential markets and a voice to improve the way major businesses and suppliers operate.
For more than a decade Citizens Advice has combined statutory consumer advocacy with rights-based advice in the electricity and gas sectors. Independent analysis by London Economics 1.64 MB demonstrates the scale of Citizens Advice’s impact in this vital sector:
On energy advice: For every £1 invested in Citizens Advice's Energy Consumer Service, an estimated £12.45 of value is generated across households, suppliers and the NHS - delivering more than £100 million in direct financial gains to households and small businesses over the past five years.
On energy advocacy: Three critical interventions alone generated an estimated £400 million in benefits for consumers, government and industry.
As the government considers everyday fixes across essential markets to restore fairness and give consumers room to breathe, Building Better Markets demonstrates the value of Citizens Advice's statutory model in the energy market and makes the case for extending this proven approach to other sectors including water, housing, telecommunications and financial services.
Click here to read Building Better Markets 2.62 MB .
Click here to read the report by London Economics 1.64 MB on the quantifiable value of Citizens Advice’s statutory energy advice and advocacy - and click here for the technical annex 546 KB .
Watch our webinar 489 MB where Gillian Cooper, Director of Energy at Citizens Advice, and Carl Emmerson, Partner at London Economics, talked us through the highlights of these publications.