Three quarters of consumers now give own energy meter readings

Around three quarters of households are providing their own meter readings for electricity and gas, with the number of people doing so growing year on year, a survey says.

The research, conducted for switching website Uswitch, suggested that energy firms were getting bills wrong about 25 per cent of the time. The company said only Inland Revenue had a worse track record on inaccurate bills. However, the research also suggested energy companies had improved, with less households being wrongly billed and the time taken to resolve discrepancies falling.

Uswitch said those improvements may be related to the fact that more people are giving energy companies accurate data from which to provide bills. The company said it was in customers interests to make sure suppliers had up to date information.