Energy regulator Ofgem has announced that the forced fitting of prepayment energy meters will be allowed once again after a scandal led to the practice being banned last year.
Energy suppliers EDF, Octopus and Scottish Power were granted powers to carry out involuntary prepayment meter fittings on Monday after meeting regulatory requirements, Ofgem said.
Centrica PLC (LSE:CNA)-owned British Gas, however, has not yet been granted approval to do so, after having sparked the ban when third-party installers were found last February to have broken into customer’s homes on its behalf.
It is unclear whether British Gas has made efforts to meet Ofgem’s new rules for forced installations, with the supplier announcing it had stopped applying for warrants to carry out the practice last year after accusations appeared in The Times.
British Gas has since parted with debt collection agency Arvato Financial Solutions, which had worked on the supplier’s behalf in carrying out the installations.
British Gas was approached for comment.
“Ofgem is reminding supplier chief executives that the rules must be followed to the letter to avoid a rerun of some of the practices seen last year,” the regulator said, meanwhile.
Such new rules will mean suppliers cannot fit meters in homes of over-75s, or where children under the age of two live, for instance.
Forced fittings also cannot be carried out where residents suffer from conditions likely to be made worse by cold conditions.
Prepayment meters themselves require residents to top up balances in accounts linked to energy usage, essentially meaning they cannot rack up more debt to suppliers.
Ofgem said the reintroduction of forced meter fittings came after supplier bad debt - where customers have missed payments - sat at almost £3 billion in December.
“While nobody wants to see the practices uncovered last year repeated, we also know that allowing households to build up unsustainable amounts of debt isn’t the right thing to do either,” Ogem markets director general Tim Jarvis said.
Octopus Energy, one of the UK's largest suppliers, said it had no plans to resume forced prepayment meter fittings, while Scottish Power dubbed the practice "a last resort".
EDF said resuming under strict guidance was important meanwhile, given a rise in bad debt levels was set to prompt an increase in consumer bills in April under plans by Ofgem.