Can anyone explain what is going on

a) the government made a ******** of things
b) the companies all have to make a profit

A meter now, under the auspices of the regulator (put in place to
allow the government to blame someone else for their failure) should
ideally be read by a human every 12 months - and IIRC it should
"definitely" be read every two years. Reducing the number of real
readings allows a company to shed staff thereby increasing their
"efficiency", while at the same time producing zero benefit for the
customer.

Ignore the repeated annoying visits from meter readers, as much of the
time the readings are wrong, made up at random, transposed digits, or
just an excuse to try to persuade you to change supplier to them.

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