OFGEM has ordered all energy firms to suspend the forced installation of prepayment meters into people’s homes and review their policies of the practice. 

The move by the energy regulator follows disturbing revelations that debt collectors hired by British Gas had forced their way into vulnerable people’s homes. 

Ofgem boss Jonathan Brearley said: “It is astonishing for any supplier not to know about their own contractor’s behaviour, especially where they are interacting with the most vulnerable in our society.