Economics viewpoint Watchdogs need to step in to tackle rip-off bills

Ever felt swizzed by the small print in your mobile contract, bamboozled by a plethora of insurance products or locked into a subscription you signed up for by mistake?

- Heather Stewart Economics editor

Then you are far from alone: a paper on the UK's productivity predicament suggests the way the markets for some services work is not only a pain for consumers but bad for the economy, too.

Rachel Reeves has promised to tackle the cost of living in her 26 November budget - alongside bringing in tax rises. Briefing in advance has suggested she and her colleagues are focused on cost-cutting levers they can easily pull from Whitehall: removing VAT on energy bills, for example.

However, in their paper "getting Britain out of the hole", the economists Andrew Sissons and John Springford suggest a more muscular approach to making markets for services work better.

They argue that lack of proper competition is a reason for the UK's frustratingly "sticky" inflation.

While it was goods - chiefly energy - that drove the post-Covid rise in prices, it has been services inflation that has hung around.

Part of the reason for this lies in rising wages. However, the authors say there is another problem here: the failure of regulation to make some markets - from household energy to mobile phones to insurance - work for consumers.