Housebuilder warns reluctance of energy companies to install meters becoming ‘enormous problem’
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Stephen Kemp
A housebuilder has said energy companies are becoming increasingly reluctant to fit meters in new homes, leading to delays in putting them to use.
Stephen Kemp, managing director of Orkney Builders, told BBC News that tenants cannot yet move into homes delivered as the first phase of a social housing development in Kirkwall because no energy suppliers are willing to install meters.
Mr Kemp said: “I know from other developers elsewhere they are down to one or two suppliers who will provide new meters.
“The thing is, that’s dwindling by the day now. We’re finding day by day every supplier’s dropping off and telling us the the same story — that they have taken the corporate decision to no longer provide new energy connections.
“So it’s potentially an enormous problem.”
Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, has written to Ofgem and called on the regulator to deal with a “textbook example of market failure”.
He has called for enforcement action against energy suppliers to ensure that housebuilders can connect new homes to the national grid.
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