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Sustainability
New reports: Energy tariffs and meters
Sustainable energy tariffs
The National Consumer Council (NCC) commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) to produce a report that assesses energy tariffs against three pillars of sustainable development: economic efficiency, environmental sustainability and social justice. The report concludes by highlighting the tariffs which, in creating a better balance between the three pillars of sustainable development, would be the most sustainable.
Click here for the report.
Smart meters
The NCC commissioned Sustainability First to produce a report that assesses the consumer implications of smart meters and analyse the safeguards that will need to be put in place to protect consumers. The report provides a comprehensive overview on the issues and also highlights some of the critical success factors associated with smart meters - to ensure that all the consumer benefits are realised.
Click here for the report.
The content of both reports and the views expressed within them are those of the authors. For details on the National Consumer Council’s view on sustainable energy tariffs and smart meters, please contact the press office on 020 7881 3018, or email press@ncc.org.uk
11 July 2008
Leading takeaway chains do ‘burger all’ to help customers make healthier choices, says NCC
07 July 2008
More than one in six of UK’s working population ‘forgotten’, according to new NCC research
24 June 2008
An investigation into the market for telephone calls from prisons
11 June 2008
Compensation when businesses act unfairly
The consumer implications of smart meters
Policy document | July 2008 | 378 KB
Towards sustainable energy tariffs
Policy document | July 2008 | 429 KB
Takeaway health consumer survey
Publication | July 2008 | 164 KB
Takeaway health: how takeaway restaurants can affect your chances of a healthy diet
Policy document | July 2008 | 98 KB
Collective redress: justice for all or free-for-all?
30 June 2008 | 63 KB
Improving outcomes for people through performance, collaboration, innovation
26 June 2008 | 76 KB
Co-production: working together to build stronger communities
18 June 2008 | 80 KB
Putting passengers at the heart of transport services
10 June 2008 | 258 KB
Takeaway health
The NCC would like to see restaurants and takeaway food outlets display nutritional information on menus so customers can work out how much fat, salt and sugar they’re eating.
Clear, up-front nutritional information on menus would allow customers to compare meals and choose healthier options.
However, a recent survey of seven of the UK’s leading takeaway restaurant chains showed that none currently display any nutritional information on their menus or menu boards. This, despite three-quarters of people asked by NCC stating that they would find nutritional information useful in takeaway restaurants, and two-thirds (61 per cent) saying they would use it to choose healthier meals.
Click here for our press release
Click here for our Takeaway health report
Click here for our consumer survey
An insight into the lives of the forgotten working poor
The latest report from NCC, 'More snakes than ladders? an insight into the lives of the 'forgotten working poor', has shown five million low-income workers, who don’t claim benefits and don’t have dependent children living with them, are being forgotten by government and business.
The report was launched at a successful event in the House of Commons with guest speakers Minister of State for Work and Pensions Stephen Timms MP and Director of the Social Market Foundation Ann Rossiter. MPs came along to pledge their support for our campaign to prevent the exclusion of the forgotten working poor in the public and private sectors, and increase awareness of the social and economic contribution they make.
The launch takes place at a time when the rising costs of basics such as food and fuel, additional charges to access or pay-for essential services, as well as the credit crunch, are having a disproportionate effect on the forgotten working poor.
Click here for our press release
Click here for the report
Click here to view a video of the case studies.
Super-complaint: the cost of telephone calls from prisons
A 30-minute call from a prison to a landline is currently over seven times more expensive than the equivalent call from a public payphone. The costs are so prohibitive that half of all calls from prisons last less than three minutes and a quarter are under a minute long.
This is why NCC has joined forces with the Scottish Consumer Council (SCC) and Welsh Consumer Council (WCC) to issue a super-complaint to regulatory body Ofcom about the cost of telephone calls from prisons. The calls are provided by BT in England and Wales and Siemens in Scotland.
The complaint states that these high costs seem unrelated to the actual cost of provision, and questions why telephone calls from prisons remain high when costs for other basic telephone services have fallen by 60 per cent in the last decade. NCC believes that the terms and conditions of the existing telephone service also explicitly seek to prevent competition, and the contracts themselves remain shrouded in secrecy.
Research suggests that prisoners are six times less likely to reoffend if they have a supportive family network to return to when released, and that almost half of people in prison lose contact with their families during their sentence.
The complaint is being made under the terms of the Enterprise Act 2002 and is supported by the Prison Reform Trust (PRT). It proposes a series of reforms, including the publication of all relevant contracts and an independent analysis of the charges against the actual costs of providing the services.
Click here to read our press release
Click here for the report
The National Consumer Council (NCC) makes a practical difference to the lives of consumers around the UK, using its insight into consumer needs to advocate change.
Click here to email the press office, or call us on:
020 7881 3018
020 7881 3019
020 7881 3015
