Meeting of the Parliament 20 May 2025
I thank Beatrice Wishart for securing this important debate. The urgency with which we need to deal with the issue is growing with each passing day.
Scheduled to happen in weeks, the switch-off is not just a technical adjustment but a looming crisis for thousands of households across Scotland, particularly those in rural areas such as my constituency in the Borders.
It is clear that rural communities are being disproportionately affected. It is estimated that, as of early April 2025, around 5,000 households in the Scottish Borders were still using the RTS electricity meters. Many of those homes rely on RTS meters to regulate their heating and hot water, and they often use legacy electric storage systems and off-peak tariffs, such as total heating, total control. Those homes are frequently off grid in hard-to-reach areas, and the issue often affects elderly people and vulnerable residents.
Although urban areas have greater infrastructure for swift meter replacement, rural households, as we know, face barriers in accessing appointments, resolving technical issues and receiving timely follow-ups. In those communities, delays mean not just inconvenience but cold homes and unaffordable bills.
A further concern is the lack of clear and widespread communication from Ofgem and suppliers. Many people have not received adequate information about the RTS switch-off and what it means for them. Even when communication has been issued, it has been vague, overly technical and simply too late, leaving constituents confused about whether they will be affected, what action they need to take and how to get support. The failure to communicate effectively on such a significant national transition is simply unacceptable.
The real impact of the issue is being felt behind closed doors across the Borders. One elderly constituent of mine is from Duns. He is 97, blind and profoundly deaf, and he has been left in limbo while his family has tried since February to secure a replacement RTS meter. Despite repeated attempts at communication with the energy supplier, they have received only mixed messages and no confirmed date for the meter replacement. My constituent now faces the real risk of disruption to heating and hot water—and entirely avoidable stress.