Why the government must turn up the heat on energy companies over RTS scandal

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It is really not that often that I am genuinely furious coming out of a meeting. It is not often that I would write a column about the same topic two weeks in a row – and yet here I am once again talking about the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) shutdown.

That alone should tell you something about the sheer arrogance and complacency I heard this week from the energy companies – and to only a slightly lesser extent, Ofgem – during the latest ministerial “roundtable” on RTS.

It is time for the government to stop playing nice with the regulator and the energy companies – and ensure that families up and down the country are properly protected for their electricity and heating before the winter.

I went into the meeting on Thursday hoping for a proper explanation of the plans for the phased shutdown of RTS, confirmed by the government the day before. I was also hoping to hear some much-needed and much-deserved contrition from Ofgem and the energy companies who are responsible for this mess.

Instead there was no acknowledgement of the reckless failures that brought us here. Over 100,000 households in Scotland are still waiting for their RTS meters to be replaced, but the past years of inaction and the past months of chaos and miscommunication might as well not have existed as far as the energy companies were concerned.

In place of apologies we were treated to blithe assurances that all is well. It turns out that the phased switch-off of RTS was planned all along by the energy companies and Ofgem. They simply did not care to tell the public until now. For months families have been fearful about the consequences of the hard deadline of 30th June, while suppliers postponed and cancelled RTS meter replacements and gave false information about everything from meter availability to fair tariffs. Apparently those fears were all for naught.

The trouble, of course, is that reality may yet intrude upon this happy, cosy consensus between Ofgem and the energy companies. Even while learning the plans for a phased switch-off on Thursday, we were told that RTS is still on the point of failure and could fall down at any time. The new plan is to finish the shutdown sometime this winter – but at the current rates of replacement they will not remove the last RTS meters until next summer.

It would take a fool or a madman to see this as a responsible solution – but between Ofgem and the energy companies that is what we have.

It should be clear to all involved that if left to their own devices, Ofgem and the energy companies would (and will) keep kicking the can until disaster strikes. In the longer term the incompetence we have seen raises serious questions about the adequacy of regulation under Ofgem – but in the short term it falls to the government to force a better outcome.

Ministers need to make the energy companies feel the heat – so that vulnerable households can still get some heat this winter. If they do not take this in hand fast then I suspect I will not be the only one furious with government, regulator and energy companies alike before too long.

Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland.