British Gas resumes force-fitting prepayment meters months after £112m settlement

Regulators lift block on supplier, enabling it to install meters in homes of people unable to afford their energy bills

British Gas has resumed force-fitting prepayment meters in the homes of people who cannot afford their energy bills just months after paying the largest settlement on record for sending debt collectors into the homes of vulnerable customers.

The industry regulator has lifted an almost four-year block that prevented British Gas from clawing back unpaid bills by fitting prepay meters in customers’ homes after extracting a settlement worth more than £100m from the supplier for its role in the prepay meter scandal at the height of the Russian gas crisis.