Martin Lewis

A price cap done wrong can do more harm than good

In her speech today at Conservative party conference, Theresa May announced a draft bill that would give Ofgem full power to impose a widespread energy price cap. Here's what Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com and cheapenergyclub.com has to say about her proposals.  It’s a national disgrace that a struggling 90 year-old granny pays substantially more to boil a kettle than an affluent web-savvy man like me. However a price cap done wrong can do more harm than good. Some in the Tories have called for a ‘relative’ price cap – which means a firm's most expensive price can only be a set percentage more than the cheapest. That’s self-defeating – it means they’ll just withdraw cheap deals.

Cutting the student loan interest rate will only help richer graduates

This weekend the papers mooted that Theresa May’s government is looking to cut the English and Welsh student loan interest rate – now at a 6.1% headline rate for those who began uni in or after 2012 – in order to appeal to the youth vote. I find this frustrating. Not because I object; I’ve always believed on principle student loan interest shouldn’t be higher than inflation – charging students for their education is one thing, charging them for the financing of their education is a step too far. Yet if the Exchequer has limited resources to finally shell out something to relieve student loan pressures, cutting the interest rate is far from a priority – in fact, it’s poorly targeted.