Unfortunately, the problem in the UK goes deeper than a failure by the public to switch suppliers. It is the knowledge by the suppliers that we need their services and no matter how much they charge, we will find a way to pay. You only have to look at the rise in price of cigarettes over the years, or petrol, to realise that if we want or need something, money is no object and this has helped contribute towards individual debt.

However, I must pick up on one point in your article. As a lawyer having worked in the UK, I have to ask the basis on which you made your comment about legal services being chosen based on quality rather than price. I think if you spoke with any conveyancer, they would tell you how they are being forced to bring their prices down to keep people coming through the door, and what is having to be sacrificed is quality of service because at the prices being paid, being readily available to every client isn’t possible anymore. You are forced in many areas of law nowadays to make a very hard choice: which market do you seek out? The bulk low cost clients, which may at the end of the year show decent figures, but which has bled you dry and probably given you a heart attack? Or the high end client who will only go with a firm that offers superior client care, but who, particularly in the current economic climate, there aren’t that many of, leaving you below your fee target?

There is also the new law coming in effect, allowing many more providers to offer legal services than ever before. Whilst this may be a generalisation, many of those firms coming into the market will offer services that can be done on a bulk basis, sacrificing client service in favour of cheap prices. And what we are seeing is more and more law firms going out of business because areas such as conveyancing, which come at the cheaper end of the work scale, can often lead to litigation, which drives up professional indemnity insurance across the industry and forces smaller firms to close down.