Imagine you run a company supplying electricity and gas to households up and down the country. What would you do if, in the grip of a particularly cold winter, some of your most vulnerable customers couldn’t pay?
I would expect most decent people, or companies, would do all they could to help. Perhaps with a payment plan or free advice to help reduce costs. I would expect the wellbeing of their customers to be at the very heart of the decisions they make.
What I wouldn’t expect is for any company to act as viciously as British Gas and its contractor Arvato have done, as has been uncovered by The Times; by forcefully installing a machine in vulnerable customers’ homes that guarantees payment, with no consultation whatsoever.
• How British Gas debt collectors break in to homes of the vulnerable
It is scandalous and shameful for British Gas to leave families anxious, cold and in the dark. Energy companies should be stretching every sinew and exhausting all possible options for struggling customers.
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In light of this investigation, I have charged my colleague, the energy minister Graham Stuart, to demand urgent answers from British Gas on what has gone wrong and why it thinks that this is an acceptable practice. How widespread is it? And what is British Gas doing to make it right?
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.
But I will also be asking questions of the energy regulator, Ofgem. I’ve already asked it to conduct a review to ensure the proper processes are being followed.
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. Ofgem needs to act swiftly to regain the confidence of British households.
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Our support package, worth tens of billions of pounds, is helping with people’s energy bills to the tune of £1,300 on average, and far more for the most vulnerable in society. But I know households are still struggling. Energy companies should be doing their part to help.
It is frankly abhorrent for a company which styles itself as “British Gas” to be so callous and cruel to customers. There is nothing British about that. And I expect urgent answers from its bosses.
Grant Shapps is the business, energy and industrial strategy secretary
