Trading Standards save us millions

TRADING Standards officers – including those in Warrington – are saving consumers millions of pounds every year.
Figures released by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) reveal that the work of local authority Trading Standards Services saves consumers in the region of £347 million a year.
Coun Roy Smith, (pictured) Warrington Borough Council’s executive member for health and wellbeing said: “This report shows how valuable our Trading Standards service is to local people. They really do save residents and businesses a lot of money. Our Trading Standards staff are protecting consumers, saving them money and ensuring that businesses can compete fairly.”
A study by the OFT shows that, on average, for every £1 spent on Trading Standards activities, consumers are saved at least £6.
The overall figure includes an estimated saving of £228 million a year delivered by tackling unfair trading practices – faulty or wrongly described goods, failure to carry out services with reasonable care and skill, misleading claims and omissions, aggressive or coercive selling or unfair contract terms.
Sound advice and assistance offered by the team also saves consumers an estimated £119 million.
Head of Warrington and Halton’s joint Trading Standards Service, Peter Astley, said: “The current economic climate means that work by Trading Standards to promote and maintain fair trading in the community and across the UK is more important than ever.
“Locally we have intervened in high pressure doorstep sales incidents, saved individual consumers thousands of pounds and tackled problem traders who have regularly been providing substandard services or failing to complete work.”