Business secretary Grant Shapps has slammed the 'scandalous and shameful' practice of forcibly fitting prepayment meters in the homes of the most vulnerable. It comes after The Times reported that British Gas had used debt collectors to visit the homes of vulnerable customers.
The energy giant has since announced it will stop using warrants to force entry into customers’ homes and install prepayment meters. Mr Shapps, the business, energy and industrial strategy secretary, has called for 'urgent answers' from British Gas and has warned other energy suppliers to end the practice.
Writing in The Times, he said: "It is scandalous and shameful for British Gas to leave families anxious, cold and in the dark." Mr Shapps informed Times readers he had tasked his colleague, the energy minister Graham Stuart, to 'demand urgent answers from British Gas' on the circumstances around why the energy company thinks fitting the meters 'is an acceptable practice.'
He writes: "In addition, I have already written to suppliers about ending this practice. We are expecting figures on the number of warrants they’ve issued in the coming weeks.
"To add further pressure, the energy companies should know that I intend to publish my findings."
Ofgem has announced it is launching an investigation and Mr Shapps said he will be 'asking questions' of the energy regulator, saying it needs to 'act swiftly' to win back the trust and confidence of households in Britain.
He wrote: "Pages of this newspaper and others have been filled with stories of households facing forced into installations of prepayment meters. But it shouldn’t take a newspaper’s investigation for a national regulator to act."
He continues: "It is frankly abhorrent for a company which styles itself as “British Gas” to be so callous and cruel to customers. And I expect urgent answers from its bosses."
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has now said it was suspending "all warrant activity" after the newspaper's article was published.
Centrica chief executive officer Chris O'Shea said, "Protecting vulnerable customers is an absolute priority and we have clear processes and policies to ensure we manage customer debt carefully and safely. The allegations around our third-party contractor Arvato are unacceptable and we immediately suspended their warrant activity.
"Having recently reviewed our internal processes to support our prepayment customers as well as creating a new £10 million fund to support those prepayment customers who need help the most, I am extremely disappointed that this has occurred. As a result, on Wednesday morning, we took a further decision to suspend all our prepayment warrant activity at least until the end of the winter.
"More broadly, there are clearly significant challenges around affordability and unfortunately, we don't see that changing anytime soon. We need to strike a balance between managing spiralling bad debt and being aware that there are those who refuse to pay and those who cannot pay.
“We think Government, industry and the regulator need to come together to agree a long-term plan to address this and ultimately create an energy market that is sustainable."
An Ofgem spokesperson said: "These are extremely serious allegations from The Times which we will investigate urgently with British Gas and we won't hesitate to take firm enforcement action. It is unacceptable for any supplier to impose forced installations on vulnerable customers struggling to pay their bills before all other options have been exhausted and without carrying out thorough checks to ensure it is safe and practicable to do so.
"We recently announced a major market-wide review investigating the rapid growth in prepayment meter installations and potential breaches of licences driving it. We are clear that suppliers must work hard to look after their customers at this time, especially those who are vulnerable, and the energy crisis must not be an excuse for unacceptable behaviour towards any customer - particularly those in vulnerable circumstances."
