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

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

British Gas has resumed force-fitting prepay meters in the homes of people unable to afford their energy bills months after paying the largest settlement on record for sending debt collectors into the homes of vulnerable customers.

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