Smart meters should be forced into every home to help meet net zero targets, British Gas boss says

The boss of British Gas has said that every home should be forced to have smart meters installed in a bid to meet net zero targets. 

Chris O'Shea's comments come two months after government data found that almost four million smart meters across Britain are not working properly leading to customers being overcharged for energy bills. 

Speaking at the House of Commons energy select committee, the chief executive of Centrica - which owns British Gas - called for a 'street by street rather than customer to customer' installation for the devices over a five year period. 

He said: 'We think that in order to have the proper smart grid that's required to keep costs low in the future, everybody should have a smart meter. One of the things we should consider as to whether this is a voluntary programme, or whether it should be mandatory.'

Mr O'Shea went on to claim that more than a third of British Gas' seven and a half million customers had ignored offers to install a smart meter. 

The ceo, who was paid £8 million last year, said: 'I have customers that write to me saying, "Please stop bothering me. I don't want a smart meter."

'We found that 44 per cent of our customers don't have them, of whom 600,000, or about 8 per cent, have said they don't want one. 

'So for 36 per cent of customers we are not sure whether they will take one or not.'

He argued that if the government 'mandated' a smart meter installation scheme, they could be installed by 2029. 

According to The Times, about 32 million people in Britain have smart meters which is about 60 per cent of all domestic meters in the country.  

In December 2023, One woman was charged £900 without warning by her smart meter. 

Paula McCracken, from East Yorkshire, said her smart meter had never worked properly and she was overcharged despite taking regular manual readings.

The 48-year-old said EDF Energy took more than £900 from her account twice with no warning, leaving her with a 'my £500 overdraft fully taken'.  

She said she was refunded on both occasions but not straight away. 

'If I had no family and friends around me to lend me a bit of money for shopping and things, I would have been completely penniless with two children for a week,' she said.

At the time, EDF Energy apologised and admitted it 'fell short'.

A spokesman said: 'Having taken actions to diagnose and resolve the issue remotely, which were unfortunately unsuccessful, we set up an appointment to reattempt commissioning but could still not receive reads due to further technical issues on site that could not be resolved.'

Sharlene Peppard, 42, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, has 11 children and used her smarter meters to budget.

After 18 months she was told by EDF that the meters were not compatible with each other.

'I went to the ombudsman who contacted the engineer. I was told the government had set a date for December 2025 to fix the problem and I'd have to wait until then,' she said.

Mrs Peppard said EDF estimated her bills to be £2 a month.

She added: 'I'd be in thousands of pounds worth of debt if I believed that. So I'm manually logging in to make the extra £200 payment each month.'