Jonathan Brearley, the Chief Executive Officer of Ofgem, has warned energy suppliers that they must follow the rules around prepayment meter installations or face the risk of damaging their reputation.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Mr Brearley said: “I do have a message today for the suppliers themselves. Your reputation is on the line. There has been deep concern raised about the practices that have been seen over the past few months, and indeed going back into history.”

Brearly added that the regulator is closely monitoring the situation and will take action against any company that does not comply with the regulations.

The boss of Ofgem said: “And if you do not improve what you do, quite frankly, there will be further rules and regulations, which will be against your commercial interest, but on top of that, Ofgem will have close monitoring of what’s happening, and that’s why it’s really critical we have the video camera evidence so we can see what people are doing and we can call that in and have a look at it if we need to.

“But equally, we have smart meters installed so we can see that if you have installed a prepayment meter, particularly for that second group of customers who need that deep welfare check and they consistently coming off the supply, then you have not done your job properly and we will respond to that.”