Walk into any supermarket and you’ll see it. Families doing their weekly shop for the basics that somehow cost more each week. Bread, milk, meat – the staples that used to be affordable now seem to cost a fortune. People are paying more, worrying more, and trusting less.
But here’s what most people don’t realise: it’s not just the price rises that are hammering household budgets. There’s a hidden crisis bleeding families dry, and it’s one we can actually do something about.
Consumer harm – the cost of goods that never arrive, services that fail, products that are unsafe, subscription traps you can’t escape, scams that proliferate unchecked – now costs Britain a staggering £71.2 billion every year.
That figure has roughly tripled from around £25 billion just a decade ago. This isn’t some marginal problem. This is a breakdown that’s compounding every other pressure Solihull families face.
Think about what that means in your daily life. You order something online that never turns up, and there’s no recourse. You buy a product that breaks immediately, but the seller has vanished. You hire a tradesperson for home improvements and end up thousands of pounds out of pocket with botched work and nowhere to turn.
The Business and Trade Committee which I chair heard evidence that the ‘wild west’ of online commerce has made things worse. Almost a third of our spending now happens online, yet platforms face little accountability when unsafe products flood the market or dodgy sellers disappear with your money. Meanwhile, our high streets struggle to compete on an uneven playing field. If you run a shop in Solihull town centre, you’re responsible for what you sell, you pay business rates, you follow safety regulations. Online commerce should face the same obligations.
Getting this right isn’t just about protecting consumers – it’s about reviving our high streets too. When online platforms can operate with impunity while bricks-and-mortar retailers shoulder the full burden of regulation and taxation, we’re actively undermining the very places that make our communities vibrant. Level that playing field and our town centres have a fighting chance.
Here’s the encouraging part: we know how to fix this. Trading standards teams, even depleted, deliver roughly £11 of benefit for every £1 spent. The inspections they manage are effective, almost half of the containers they examine contain unsafe products. Properly resourced and equipped for the digital age, imagine what they could achieve.
When things go wrong, people need somewhere to turn that doesn’t require hiring a solicitor. In sectors like home improvements and used cars where risks are highest, proper redress schemes would give ordinary families a fighting chance at justice.
This matters because cutting that £71 billion rip-off would give household budgets real breathing room. Enforcing proper standards online means families can shop with confidence. Creating proper routes to redress means people can invest in their homes without fear. And making the rules apply equally means our high streets can thrive again.
Solihull deserves better than a system where the biggest platforms play by different rules while our town centres struggle. Get this right, and we rebuild trust, protect families and create the vibrant communities we all want to see.
