§ Mr. JenkinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many properties in(a) Tamworth and (b) the United Kingdom have electric card meters; what proportion this represents of all properties; and how much is paid for electricity by a customer using (i) an electric card meter and (ii) standard payment methods. [105146]
§ Mrs. LiddellThere are no electric card pre-payment meters in Tamworth but there are 5,329 token meters. In the United Kingdom there are 3.6 million pre-payment meters (including card and token meters). This represents around 15 per cent. of the number of domestic customers in the United Kingdom (as at March 1998). An average annual bill for an East Midlands Electricity customer on a pre-payment meter tariff would be £263.15 as opposed to £241.95 for a standard payment tariff (both based on a consumption of 3,300 kWh).