Prepayment Meters

Emma Hardy Excerpts

Monday 23rd January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The system that we inherited and that exists today reflects the cost of supply, and Ofgem supervises that to ensure it is the case. Alongside him and others across the House, I would be interested in looking at that again to make sure we get a system with the right balance.

[Emma Hardy (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) (Lab)]

It is fundamentally unfair that people with a prepayment meter pay more for their energy. Whether they have chosen that prepayment meter or not, they have the same energy coming into their homes as everybody else. The argument from the energy companies that somehow, “This is justified because it is more expensive” falls completely flat when we find out that many people are being moved from smart meters straight over to prepayment meters. So will the Minister look at taking enforcement action to stop those on prepayment meters being charged more?