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You and Yours: Energy Bills, Microchipping Pets, Rental Fraud

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30/11/2015

Energy Bills, Microchipping Pets, Rental Fraud

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Energy Bills, Microchipping Pets, Rental Fraud

With reports about household energy bills, pet theft and room rental fraud.

Including a feature about George Osborne's promises for household energy bills. Plus reports about apparent increases in pet theft and fraud involving rooms for rent.

George Osborne announced some changes in the Autumn statement that will have an impact on our energy bills. Industry that is energy intensive will be permanently exempt from the environmental levies added to our bills by government. But it means that households will be paying extra - another £5 each a year. However Osborne claims will be seeing a £30 reduction on our bills thanks to the new, less ambitious Energy Company Obligation that will take effect in 2017. So is he right?

According to Blue Cross pet charity there has been an increase in stolen pets of almost 40% compared to 2012. Now owners are backing the charity's call for tougher sentences for those who commit the crime, which Blue Cross hopes will act as a deterrent. Almost half of pet owners believe pets are being stolen to sell. And, as many stolen pets are already microchipped, why are more of them not found when the new owner brings them to the vets for the first check up. 

Fraud involving rooms to rent rose by a third over the last year. That's according to Action Fraud - the UK's national fraud reporting centre. There were two and half thousand cases of fraud involving rooms to rent reported in England and Wales in the year to July 2014. This year there were more than three thousand three hundred reported cases.

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