It’s back on the meters
2 more companies can restart force-fitting
TWO more energy firms have been given the green light to resume forcibly fitting prepayment meters in people’s homes.
Regulator Ofgem said E.On and Tru Energy have met its “strict” conditions.
EDF, Octopus and Scottish Power got the same permission in January.
Forcibly installing prepayment meters was temporarily banned following a scandal a year ago.
A probe revealed debt collection agents on behalf of British Gas were breaking into homes and force-fitting prepayment meters, even for people known to have extreme vulnerabilities.
Those resuming forced installations, normally to recover debts, must now make at least 10 attempts to contact a customer before a prepayment meter is fitted and carry out a site welfare visit before proceeding.
They are not allowed to forcibly fit a PPM in a household if any occupant is classed as being a very high risk.
This includes those who require a continuous energy supply for health reasons, people aged 75 and over who have no other support in the property, and children under two years old. An Ofgem spokesman said: “Protecting consumers is our number one priority.”
Some campaigners want the temporary ban on forced installations to be made permanent.
Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said:
“This is a barbaric way to recover debt.”
It comes as Ofgem prepares to announce a large drop in its price cap tomorrow. Experts believe it will be reduced from an average of £1,928 a year now to around £1,620 from April.
But analysis out yesterday from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition has found that the typical household has forked out £2,300 more on energy bills since April 2021 because of the energy crisis fuelled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A BRITISH citizen jailed in Siberia has called on Russians to put an end to Vladimir Putin’s reign of terror.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, 42, is serving 25 years in a penal colony for “treason” and criticising the tyrant’s war against Ukraine.
He believes Putin is responsible for rival Alexei Navalny’s death in an Arctic hellhole jail last week.
Opposition figure Kara-Murza said: “He must be stopped. Only Russian society itself can do this.”
Like Navalny, Kara-Murza was the victim of poisoning by Putin’s secret services.
Bravely, he said from his cell: “Vladimir Putin personally bears responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny.
“Alexei was his personal prisoner. And only on his personal orders could the poisoners from the 2nd FSB service act.” The same applied to “prosecutors and judges who processed cases and sentences” as well as “prison officials who created torture conditions”.
MPs and friends of Kara-Murza, who also holds Russian citizenship, are working to see him swapped in a prisoner exchange, and allowed to travel to Britain.
That campaign is being led by UK-based human rights activist Bill Browder.
Referring to a series of apartment bombings which were blamed on Chechens and used as a pretext for war, Kara-Murza added: “This man [Putin] has brought death with him throughout the 25 years of his power – since that very autumn, when peaceful people sleeping in their apartments were blown up at night.”
He warned: “The best are dying – the bravest, the most sincere, the most caring.
“Everyone returns – except those who are most needed.”
Putin has brought death for his 25 years in power
VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA FROM SIBERIAN JAIL CELL