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Pay people £100 to install smart meters, study suggests

Smart meters promise to improve energy efficiency and contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
Smart meters promise to improve energy efficiency and contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

Households should be given £100 to encourage them to sign up for smart meters, a new study has suggested.

The government was forced to delay its deadline for 53 million households and small businesses to have smart meters by the end of this year, after a rollout scheme beset by problems for consumers.

Researchers at the London School of Economics spoke to 2,400 households across the UK and found only 15 per cent would be willing to install a smart meter without a financial incentive.

Offering families £100 e-vouchers raised take-up to 75 per cent, while information campaigns that focused on the benefit to society also boosted adoption of the scheme.

Smart meters promise to improve energy efficiency and contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The UK has some of the most energy inefficient homes in Europe, and will need to get household emissions down if it is to meet its legally binding target to hit net zero emissions in 2050.

But take-up of the scheme dwindled to just 16.5m at the end of last year, after an early wave of energy customers found the technology wouldn’t work once they switched suppliers. A report from the National Audit Office in 2018 found the rollout would cost consumers an extra £500m more than expected and there have also been concerns over data security.

“Encouraging people to adopt technologies and behaviours that have direct private costs and uncertain future benefits is an objective that will continue to feature prominently in society’s response to climate change and other environmental externalities,” said Dr Daire McCoy, a fellow at the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute.

The cost of the subsidy would be within the government’s own cost-benefit analysis of the smart meter rollout scheme, the study said.