Wednesday 22 May 2019 10:59 am | Updated: Wednesday 05 June 2019 8:32 am

Gas grid Cadent pays £44m after leaving customers without supply and losing records

Gas network company Cadent has today apologised after it was forced to pay £44m for failing customers in nearly 800 London high rises.

The firm has agreed to pay a £24m fine to regulator Ofgem, and will set aside £20m to set up a fund to support vulnerable customers.

Ofgem levelled a litany of charges at the firm, saying it had left residents in blocks of flats without gas “for longer than necessary” while repairing gas pipes.

The company had also failed to compensate around 12,000 customers it had left without gas for over 24 hours during the past six years, and had no records of its gas pipes in 775 high rise blocks of flats in London.

This meant the pipes were not being routinely inspected.

“Cadent has a duty of care and responsibility to millions of people across half of the country who rely on the gas it pipes to their homes for cooking and heating” said Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan.

Cadent, which recently changed ownership, said it “has issued an unreserved apology to customers”.

The company added: “While Cadent is a relatively new business, some of its record keeping processes and practices go back many decades, and a number of the issues we are addressing today are a legacy of that past.

“We are taking the opportunity to reshape the company to set new standards of customer experience and are investing significantly through our community fund to reach those customers in the most vulnerable situations.”

Citizens Advice welcomed the news this morning, saying customers need to be compensated when things go wrong.

“Our research shows that in the last three years, households have missed out on £5.1 million of compensation for customer service failures by network companies. We believe that when these companies don’t deliver the right levels of service, compensation should be automatic,” said Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy.