Notsosmartmeter

Shock! Horror! The £11 billion project to switch to so-called smart meters, which will cost every household £420 (that’s you and me), has been found wanting. Just think what £11 billion would do for other services such as the NHS.

Government, from Margaret Thatcher onward, has also shot itself in the foot in privatising the power industry. It beggars belief that government now advises us to change energy companies to save on bills when smart meters are not even compatible between the various energy companies.

Previous Secretaries of State for Energy and Climate Change such as Chris Huhne, Edward Davey and Amber Rudd have a lot to answer for.

Surely even the most neuron-challenged person will recognise that it is far cheaper to power a 5 watt LED lamp bulb than say, a 3000 watt electric fire, so who needs a smart meter?

Disturbingly this is only the tip of the iceberg as smart meters not only lend themselves to imaginative and exploitative billing, but worryingly will have the potential to isolate a customer or group of customers from a remote computer – currently disconnection requires a visit by an engineer. They say every cloud has a silver lining and in this case the lucky bunnies are the power companies, as they simply pass on the cost to the hapless customer – heads they win, tails we lose – like taking candy off a baby.

DAVE HASKELL Cardigan, Ceredigion