Dr Luke Evans, Shadow Health and Social Care Minister and the Conservative MP for Hinckley and Bosworth, has tabled a Private Members' Bill seeking to prohibit mobile, landline and broadband providers from raising prices during the term of a fixed contract. The Telecommunications (Fixed-term Contracts) Bill is still in its earliest stages and hasn't been fully drafted yet, and the chances of ever receiving Royal Assent are slim. However, it comes in response to alleged pricing issues since Ofcom's January 2025 reforms.
The reforms that came into force in January 2025 were designed to improve transparency, replacing the old inflation-linked model with a requirement for providers to state any future price rises clearly in pounds and pence at the point of sale.
However, some providers responded by switching to flat annual increases, typically in the region of £2 to £5 per month. A recent study by MoneySuperMarket has claimed that the new policy has, on balance, resulted in higher prices for most consumers compared to what the old model would have produced.
The bill's prospects will depend largely on how much cross-party support it attracts as it progresses through Parliament. Private Members' Bills rarely make it onto the statute book, but they can shift the terms of debate and the general conversation around topics within Parliament, as well as putting pressure on the government or regulator to act.