A reader in Shropshire has described how British Gas muddled up energy meter registrations across a new-build housing estate, leading to residents being billed for each other's energy. The mix-up left the reader paying charges intended for the estate's developer, receiving contradictory bills, and having their bank details wrongly shared, before finally being penalised with a higher tariff after cancelling their direct debit in protest.

British Gas has confirmed that meters across all the homes it supplies on the estate were incorrectly assigned during construction, when plot numbers were matched to the wrong addresses. Although the reader's own meter has now been corrected, cancelling the direct debit triggered a 19% tariff rise through the loss of a discount, and the supplier is now demanding an overdue payment with a £13 surcharge, despite the reader still awaiting a revised, accurate bill and promised compensation three months after first raising the issue.