Warning meters in 300,000 homes could stop working

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwelling-stock-estimates-in-england-2022/dwelling-stock-estimates-england-31-march-2022

Hi Andy the stats as of 2022 suggest there are 25 million+ dwellings in England,

If there are currently only 300 thousand remaining dwelling reliant on the RTS it doesn’t seem be newsworthy.

I'm not sure that the folk affected if it has not been well mitigated will agree. I think we do suffer very badly from the 'one incident is too many' culture and often make mountains from molehills, but anything that affects this no of folk is probably big enough to be justified.

At least its being done in the summer.

Mike.

And also that's probably exactly why "End Fuel Poverty Coalition" worked to make sure this did get in the news - they'd (possibly quite reasonably) be concerned that energy companies would also consider it not newsworthy, and so not bother making sure the roll out was complete by the end of July. From the perception (which may be incorrect) of these users they're being forgotten about, which is a perfect way to encourage people to make sure their story does become news...

It makes good business sense that if you satisfy 99% of your customers you're doing ok. But if that involves making the remaining 1% REALLY angry (and potentially depriving them of heating is a pretty good way of doing that) then you can be pretty certain that you'll find yourself at the wrong end of a news story!

Lesson for us all in any industry...

Hi Mike, it’s 1.2%ish of the total number of dwellings. I would be surprised if it was more than the same percentage of that percentage of users who would actually be hit by higher bills, most people with teleswitches just pay a flat rate. Most of Those who rely only on teleswitches to actually control their heating and hot water would surely have been induced to smart meters simply by the cost of not switching?

Hi,

The concern that was raised wasn't of higher bills, but of homes been left without electricity to their heating.  This is is the source report:

https://www.endfuelpoverty.org.uk/looming-crisis-for-households-on-rts-meters/

But as I mentioned above, it's not clear how many households would actually lose heating even if there were 300,000 units unchanged - as you say it's a further percentage of that 1%. But those affected would be very greatly affected (if the roll out isn't completed in time).

Thanks,

Andy

Hi,

The concern that was raised wasn't of higher bills, but of homes been left without electricity to their heating.  This is is the source report:

https://www.endfuelpoverty.org.uk/looming-crisis-for-households-on-rts-meters/

But as I mentioned above, it's not clear how many households would actually lose heating even if there were 300,000 units unchanged - as you say it's a further percentage of that 1%. But those affected would be very greatly affected (if the roll out isn't completed in time).

Thanks,

Andy

Thanks for your reply AndyM. In my experience I would say that there are very few dwellings these days that rely only an RTS to control their heating and hot water, they do exist but are far and few between. Off peak rates such as E7 have been for a good many years a cash-cow for the electricity suppliers, many consumers think they are getting a good deal by putting their dishwasher or washing machine on over night but don’t realise they are paying a higher price all told.

Nick.