Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the Financial Conduct Authority to regulate the rent-to-own sector by capping the total cost of goods bought through rent-to-own.

Treasury ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. This includes regular meetings with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to discuss relevant regulatory issues.

The government transferred the regulation of consumer credit, including rent-to-own, to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2014.

The government has given the FCA strong powers to protect consumers, including the power to cap all forms of credit, and the FCA can do so if it thinks it is necessary to protect consumers. In 2015, the FCA capped the cost of payday lending, and the FCA has said that it will keep the issue of capping the cost of credit in other markets under review.

The government welcomes the ongoing work of the FCA to review the high-cost credit market, including the rent-to-own sector. The FCA published a feedback statement in July 2017, noting concerns with rent-to-own, catalogue credit, home-collected credit, and overdrafts. The FCA aims to consult on proposed remedies in Spring 2018.