Energy firms force-fitted 94,000 prepayment meters

Ministers have been “horrified” to discover that energy suppliers force-fitted prepayment meters in customers’ homes more than 94,000 times last year.

The figures emerged in the wake of a Times investigation after Grant Shapps, the energy security secretary, ordered the companies to reveal the extent to which they had been breaking into homes and force-fitting the meters during the cost of living crisis.

More than 7,500 prepayment meters were fitted per month last year after warrants were obtained at courts; 70 per cent of them were for just three companies: British Gas, Scottish Power and Ovo Energy.

Shapps said that he did not want an outright ban on the meters, which cut off gas or electricity if households cannot afford to top up, as some consumers preferred them.

However, he said suppliers must stop forcing prepayment meters on to vulnerable customers and those wrongly targeted in the past should “get the justice they deserve in the form of redress”.

He added: “Today’s figures give a clear and horrifying picture of just how widespread the forced installation of prepayment meters had become . . . I do have concerns that companies have not been treating their customers fairly, over an already difficult winter.”

The Times’s undercover investigation found that British Gas was routinely sending debt collectors to break into customers’ homes and force-fit the meters, even when customers were known to have extreme vulnerabilities.

Families targeted this winter included a single father with three children, the mother of a four-week-old baby and a woman in her fifties known to have severe mental health problems.

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The agents arrived with warrants to break into the homes, with these signed off in batches by magistrates’ courts, apparently with little scrutiny.

The findings have led to investigations by the government, two parliamentary committees and Ofgem, the energy regulator.

The force-fitting of prepayment meters has been suspended until companies agree to a legally enforceable code of practice.

Lord Justice Edis, one of the country’s most senior judges, has also ordered courts to stop listing hearings for energy warrants “until further notice”.

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The budget on March 15 included an announcement that households on prepayment meters would no longer pay more than other customers for their energy.

Figures released by the government on Monday showed that British Gas, Scottish Power and Ovo Energy fitted 66,187 devices under warrant last year.

British Gas installed 25,000 of them — the highest number of any one supplier. However, Scottish Power was described as “the worst offender” relative to customer size as it forced 24,320 meters into its customers’ homes.

Centrica, which owns British Gas, has apologised for the conduct of its agents. It has said that it only uses warrants as a last resort and protecting vulnerable customers is “an absolute priority”.

Scottish Power said its processes were tailored to take account of customer vulnerabilities and circumstances, adding: “We would not switch a customer to prepayment without advanced notice and installing a prepayment meter is always a last resort.”