Energy suppliers have been given an extra six months to install smart metres due to the pandemic. The deadline for all homes to be offered smart metres has been pushed back to 30 June 2015. Mary-Anne Bowring, group managing director at Ringley, said: “As a managing agent, we welcome this news as unless a block has a concierge service or on-site staff, it’s extremely difficult to arrange attendance to carry out meter readings.

“New build developments are particularly at risk as utilities start off on commercial rates–at 20% VAT–and high usage during construction, and so when transferred post-occupation to block management, it is no easy feat to firstly get the utility companies to stop charging on estimates based on construction use when this will have fallen significantly and VAT rates will no longer be payable. “Cashflow is a balancing act in the early days of new-build properties and the faster smart meters come the better to protect residents’ hard-earned cash.” Installing smart meters could save savvy consumers up to £250 on their bills, while slashing countrywide carbon emissions by 45 million tonnes – the equivalent of taking 26 million cars off the road for a year.