Every home to be fitted with ‘smart’ meters

The biggest upheaval in household energy supplies for decades will be launched by the government on Monday, when it gives details of its plans to put a “smart” electricity and gas meter in every home in the country by 2020.

The huge programme, involving the fitting of 49m new meters in 27m homes, is expected to cost about £7bn ($11bn). Industry executives describe it as the biggest change in the way energy is delivered to the home since the country converted to natural gas in the 1970s.