Grant Shapps ‘sitting on hands’ amid prepayment meter scandal, says Labour

Labour has accused the business secretary, Grant Shapps, of allowing thousands more people to be forced on to prepayment meters by “sitting on his hands”, after it emerged more than 30,000 entry warrants were awarded in January.

Ministry of Justice figures have shown 32,790 warrants were issued last month despite calls from MPs in the Guardian in mid-December for suppliers to halt installations to prevent vulnerable households being forced to go without heat and power.

Labour then called for a ban on forced installations in mid-January after estimates that 3.2 million people on prepay meters were left with cold and dark homes last year as they ran out of credit. Magistrates have been signing off warrants en masse.

Energy suppliers can move customers who fall behind on their energy bills on to more expensive prepayment meters but should ensure that vulnerable customers are not forcibly moved.

Shapps wrote to energy suppliers late last month urging them to only install meters as a last resort, but stopped short of ensuring an outright ban on forced installations.

The MoJ figures show that, in the week after Shapps’ letter and before a subsequent order to halt installations by Ofgem, 6,360 warrants requested by energy suppliers were granted.

Suppliers abruptly stopped the practice of forced installations this week after demands by Shapps and Ofgem. The regulator acted after the Times revealed that a debt agent working for British Gas ignored customers’ vulnerabilities to break into homes and fit meters.

On Sunday, Grant Shapps accused Ofgem of “having the wool pulled over their eyes” by energy company bosses. He has given companies a deadline of Tuesday to report back on what action they will take to help customers who may have had prepayment meters wrongfully installed in their homes – including compensation.

Labour shadow climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, said: “Grant Shapps is the do-nothing business secretary, who has sat on his hands in the face of the scandal of forced installation of prepayment meters, and simultaneously waves through energy companies making record profits at the expense of the British people.

“Thousands more families have had warrants issued for the forced installation of prepayment meters since Grant Shapps refused to act weeks ago.

“Now, even after the scandal at British Gas and the millions disconnected by the back door, he still won’t adopt Labour’s call for a total and ongoing ban on the forced installation of prepayment meters until there is wholesale reform of a discredited, rotten and callous system.”

Ofgem has said that enforcing an outright ban on forced installations would require a change in the law.

The watchdog is examining how to remove the cost-difference between prepay customers and those on direct debits, and considering how a social tariff to support low-income households could be introduced.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy denied Shapps had not moved quickly enough and said “the business secretary has today asked suppliers to urgently write to him on what action they plan to take where they have wrongfully installed prepayment meters in the homes of vulnerable customers. He has also told the industry regulator, Ofgem, to toughen up on energy suppliers and investigate the customers’ experience of how their supplier is performing.

“This follows the launch last month of a wider crackdown on the mistreatment of vulnerable customers, where he called on suppliers to voluntarily stop the practice of forced prepayment switching as the answer to households struggling to pay bills and make greater effort to help the most vulnerable.”