Energy firms should start removing prepayment meters and compensating families whose homes were wrongly fitted with one, the regulator has said.
Ofgem boss Jonathan Brearley said that companies must review their installations immediately instead of waiting for the results of a review due to be announced at the end of March.
A six-week pause until March 31 was announced earlier this month, after details emerged in a Times report of debt agents for British Gas breaking into vulnerable people's homes to force fit meters. The regulator ordered energy suppliers to halt the practice of forcing customers to have prepayment meters fitted against their will if they have fallen into debt.
