Convenient credit and consumer protection – a critical review of the responses of Labour and Coalition governments

Abstract

This article highlights how the overreliance on access to ‘convenient credit’ in the United Kingdom has illustrated the inherent low levels of consumer protection afforded to consumers by the Consumer Credit Act. Furthermore, this has also been fuelled by the deregulation of the consumer credit market in the 1980s and 1990s by the Conservative government and by the promotion of ‘convenient credit’ by the Labour government. The article comments on legislative measures initiatives designed to counter the problems associated with access to convenient credit and to improve the level of protection afforded to consumers.