One third of all smart meters have failed
By Sam Meadows
SMART meter failures have been
suffered by a third of households, a
report reveals today.
Problems with displays malfunction-
ing and meters “going dumb” after a
switch of supplier were the most
common issues, according to polling
by uSwitch. There are now more than
14 million smart meters, which show
energy use in real time and send
readings to suppliers automatically,
installed in households around the
country.
More than a fifth of those surveyed
told uSwitch they had been put under
pressure by their supplier to accept a
smart meter as firms seek to avoid fines
for missing installation targets.
Many companies have started to
restrict their cheapest deals to those
willing to accept a smart meter in a bid
to encourage uptake.
More encouragingly for the Govern-
ment, around three in 10 said their
smart meter had helped them reduce
their bills and two thirds said they had
become more aware of their energyusage since having one installed, up
from just a third last year.
Rik Smith, from uSwitch, said:
“While it’s great to see smart meters
improving energy habits and helping
consumers save on their bills, there are
still far too many issues with the roll-
out which are damaging consumer
confidence in the whole scheme.”
The £11 billion project is now almost
certain to come in late and over-
budget, according to experts, and has
been plagued with problems from
the start.
Millions of the devices lost their
smart functions when customers
switched energy firm, while a new
version, supposedly free from theswitching issues, has caused yet more
problems for households.
Suppliers were supposed to stop in-
stalling the first-generation meters in
March, but one in five of those sur-
veyed by uSwitch reported having
been offered one since then as energy
companies look to offload their stock.
Mr Smith said: “There is a real
opportunity to build more confidence
in smart meters if households are given
the right information to make the most
of their new device and they’re offered
a second-generation meter which
shouldn’t go dumb if someone switches
supplier.
“But people say that they’re still be-
ing offered first-generation meters, de-spite the legacy of them going wrong
and the risk they will go dumb.”
The first-generation meters will
eventually be enrolled on to the
national communications network
used by newer devices, which the Gov-
ernment claims will mean they can
seamlessly switch between supplies.
Robert Cheesewright, of Smart
Energy GB, the body tasked with
promoting the roll-out, said thousands
of second-generation meters were
being installed every day.
“It’s great that smart-meter owners
say they are using their devices to save
more than £100 a year,” he said.
“As more and more smart meters are
installed, we are all playing a part toupgrade and decarbonise our outdated
energy system.”
Lawrence Slade, of Energy UK, the
trade body, said he was pleased to see
more people saying their smart meter
is helping them become aware of their
energy use. He added: “Smart meters
are essential if we are to deliver the
flexible energy system that will help us
to achieve our net-zero target by 2050.”
The Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy, which
is implementing the roll-out, claimed
that eight in 10 smart-meter owners
had become more aware of their
energy use. A spokesman said suppliers
were obliged to replace faulty displays
free of charge.Traditional
funerals dying
out in favour of
quirky send-offs
By Gabriella Swerling,
SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR
THE religious funeral is falling out of
favour, according to the most extensive
ever report on funeral trends.
Instead of services in churches, cre-
matoriums and cemeteries, Britons are
opting for increasingly quirky ways to
mourn their loved ones.
Since 2011, there has been an 80 per
cent decline in religious funerals ac-
cording to the Co-op, which organises
more than 100,000 funerals every year.
Eight years ago, 67 per cent of people
requested traditional religious services.
However by 2018, just 13 per cent
wanted a religious funeral, according to
its report, entitled Burying Traditions:
The Changing Face of UK Funerals,
Undertakers have reported a “stag-
gering shift” towards unique, secular
ceremonies. Niche requests have in-
cluded milk floats, canal boats, con-
verted steam trains and quad bikes.
The locations of funerals have also
changed. Zoos, buses, a cattle auction
house, the 18th hole on a golf course –
and even a McDonald’s Drive Thru –
have hosted processions. Tributes have
extended to creative ways of immortal-
ising ashes such as placing them inside
the furnace of a steam train, scattering
them during a skydive, or keeping
them inside a rucksack.
Funeral directors also reported that
22 per cent of people had already de-
cided what they want inside their cof-
fins. Among the more unusual requests
are Chinese takeaways, a false leg, a
broomstick and an Argos catalogue. Sa-
mantha Tyrer, managing director of
Co-op Funeralcare, said: “Our funerals
represent the unique life an individual
has lived. More so now than ever be-
fore, we’re seeing requests for wonder-
fully personalised ceremonies.”
Consumer confidence in
£11 billion roll-out has been
‘damaged’ despite energy
awareness increasing
‘Our funerals represent the
unique life an individual
has lived with requests for
personalised ceremonies’
News
Show time Photographer Simon Annand’s exhibition of
stars including Gillian Anderson about to perform is at
the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield from Sept 7.SIMON ANNANDNational Parks should have rangers like
in the US, Government adviser proposes
Asda, Tesco and Poundland among
stores found selling knives to children
Fake flowers only at the cemetery where
squirrels have turned grave robbers
Parents banned from school playground
as they ‘stifle independence of pupils’
uNational Parks need US-style
rangers in order to thrive, the
Government adviser in charge of a
new review has said.
Julian Glover, a journalist and writer
who was formerly an associate editor
at the Evening Standard, was placed as
head of the review of National Parks
and Areas of Outstanding Natural
Beauty by Michael Gove when he was
environment secretary.
He is currently in the process of
writing a review after touring all of
Britain’s treasured landscapes.
Mr Glover said that UK parks need
more funding and information, like
equivalents in the US, as well as a
“fourfold” increase in park rangers.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today
programme: “If you go to National
Parks in other places, you go to
America, there’s a lot more
information, a lot more understanding,
trying to educate people.”
He added that the parks currently
do not have enough funding. He said:
“We probably spend more money on
opera in central London than we do on
our national parks, so we do need a bit
more cash.”uSome of Britain’s biggest shops are
illegally selling knives to children,
undercover investigators have found.
Children were able to buy knives in
one in seven (15 per cent) attempts
from big-name shops, despite concern
over a knife crime epidemic.
Tesco, Asda, Home Bargains and
Poundland were among the stores
exposed in the Trading Standards
investigation, funded by the Home
Office, which involved “undercover”
children making 2,231 test purchases.
The firms were told by the
Government to take immediate actionto stop the sales. Kit Malthouse, the
policing minister, said: “I expect the
stores to take urgent action to stop
young people getting hold of knives.”
Each of the mainstream stores sold
knives to children at least 15 times
during the tests. Online stores were
worse, with 41 out of 100 children
being sold a knife.
Lord Toby Harris, head of National
Trading Standards, said: “I urge all
retailers to do more. Can you remove
knives from shelves and have them
available from a locked cabinet or via a
specific till, as with cigarettes?”u Dozens of squirrels have been
eating mourners’ flowers at a
graveyard, forcing them to leave fake
blooms in their place.
Visitors have filmed up to 30
squirrels at a time eating floral tributes
and digging into plots at Hook Road
Cemetery in Goole, East Yorkshire.
The animals are reportedly being
fed nuts by “houses nearby”. Some
bereaved relatives have pressed the
town council to organise a cull.
Ian Blee, 74, said he was tired of
spending money on tributes for his
wife and parents, as he knew they
would be gone by his next visit. He
said: “I agree they should be culled.
There are far, far too many now, I don’t
know what the alternative is.
‘‘I have had to put artificial flowers
on the graves now because I am sick of
real ones being eaten by the squirrels.
They wait for you and sometimes they
come to take them while you are
putting them on graves.”
The council decided against the
cull, calling it ineffective.
Families pay up to £800 for burials
at the cemetery, which includes £
for a headstone.u Parents have been “banned” from
the playground of a Scottish primary
school, amid concerns children’s
independence is being stifled.
Staff at Troon Primary, near Ayr in
west Scotland, said children were
becoming “extremely overwhelmed”
by the number of adults in the
playground.
During the morning drop-off,
parents were allegedly lining up
beside their children, but staff told
parents to “allow them to become
more independent”.
Aileen Roan, the head teacher, saidin a letter: “Moving forward, we would
kindly ask parents to please drop their
children at the gates in the morning
and allow the school assistants to
oversee the lines and playground
supervision.
“Some of our children can become
extremely overwhelmed and upset by
the volume of parents in the line.”
Ms Roan ends the letter by saying: “I
understand how hard it can be as a
parent to step back and allow them to
become more independent however,
as always, we will be on hand to
provide them with support.”Smokers are down to 10 cigarettes a day Detectorists hit Battle of Hastings jackpot
u The largest hoard of coins ever
discovered from the post-Norman
Conquest period, found by an amateur
during a metal detecting lesson, are an
early example of tax avoidance, British
Museum experts have said.
Coins dating back to the Battle of
Hastings include rare examples of
“mules”, with the face of one king on
the head and another on the tail to
allow coin-makers to avoid paying
extra tax. Specialists said the 2,
coins, containing five times the
number of pieces bearing the head of
William the Conqueror than previouslydiscovered, would shed valuable light
on the period under Norman rule.
Unearthed in Somerset by metal
detectorists, they are likely to have
been buried by a wealthy landowner
in the years following the Battle ofHastings. Adam Staples and Lisa
Grace, metal detectorists, said they
had been teaching a hobbyist friend
how to use the equipment when the
detector picked up a signal.
Found in a field in Chew Valley,
Somerset, in January, they bear the
heads of both Harold II and William I- a probable tax avoidance measure.
Experts believe the reported
£5 million value is overinflated. But
undeterred, Mr Staples said: “We went
down for a weekend and hit the
jackpot.” It is the largest Norman
treasure find since 1833.
u The average smoker has cut down
to around 10 a day, in the wake of the
ban on smoking indoors and the rise in
vaping, new research shows.
The study by Cancer Research UK
reveals that while the number of
smokers has fallen substantially in
recent years, the fall in total cigarettes
smoked is significantly higher.
While the number of people
smoking has fallen by 15 per cent since
2011, the total number of cigarettes
smoked has dropped by 24 per cent.
Around 14.7 per cent of British
adults smoke, down from 20.2 per cent
in 2011, official figures show. And the
research shows that the average
smoker now has 10.6 cigarettes a day- down from 12.4 a day in 2011. It
comes in the wake of the ban in
smoking indoors in 2007.
Meanwhile, the number of adults
vaping has risen by 70 per cent in just
two years, with one in four children
aged between 11 and 15 also having
tried e-cigarettes.
In total, 6.3 per cent of adults use
e-cigarettes, the figures for 2016 show - up from 3.7 per cent in 2014. And 25
per cent of children aged between 11
and 15 have tried vaping – a rise from
22 per cent in two years.
Public Health England says vaping
is now the most popular and effective
way for smokers to quit.
The study shows that almost one
and a half billion fewer cigarettes have
been smoked each year since 2011.
The team at University College
London examined cigarette sales data
as well as the monthly self-reported
cigarette use from more than 135,
people.
The study was published in the
journal JAMA Network Open.Many of the 2,
coins found in
Somerset bear the
heads of William the
Conqueror and
Harold IIAt the chalkface Volunteers refresh the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, where people are working with the National Trust to re-chalk the ancient figure that is
thought to have been on the hillside since the 17th century. The team of volunteers will spend the next two weeks renovating the giant figure by hand.BEN BIRCHALL/PA12 ***^ Thursday 29 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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