say they re looking for a key witness. officers want to speak to a woman who was wearing a yellow coat and pushing a pram near the river wyre. now on bbc news, the travel show. advice to the courts has been given that warrants for the forced installation of prepaid metres in the uk could be waved through. more than 1000 once a day were approved by magistrates last year as the cost of living crisis put many customers into arrears. earlier this week the regulator, offer jam, asked firms to suspend the compulsory installation of the devices after a couple of times investigation showed british gas subcontractors breaking into homes of vulnerable people. 0fgem. this was into homes of vulnerable people. 0fgem. this was the footage that trust energy companies firmly under the spotlight. an undercover reporter from the times showed that collectors working for british gas breaking into the home of a single father with young children, to fit a prepayment metre. energy suppliers c
the energy regulator ofgem has asked suppliers to pause the forced installation of prepaid metres. it follows revelations that a debt collection company working for british gas broke into the homes of vulnerable people to install the metres. prepayment metres require customers to pay for their energy in advance. it s more expensive than paying by direct debit, but are sometimes the only option for people who have struggled to pay and are in debt to a supplier. ben king has more. an undercover reporter from the times newspaper joined a team of debt collectors, entering the home of a single father with three young children. they count as vulnerable. but, these workers from arvato financial solutions, working for british gas, opened the door and installed a prepayment meter anyway. installing prepayment meters by force is legal, but it s meant to be a last resort, and should not be done to vulnerable households. if people cannot afford to top up the meters, they will be left wit
we still, of course, work out the detail of the inquiry, but we are still. it is still sinking in, to be honest. charges of attempted rape and assault are dropped against manchester united footballer mason greenwood, after a key witnesses withdraws involvement. the oil giant shell reports record annual profits of £32 billion the highest in its 115 year history. and a watchdog urges landlords to act now after tens of thousands of homes were found to have serious damp and mould issues. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the bank of england has raised interest rates from 3.5 to 4% their highest level since 2008. the increase will leave millions of households facing higher mortgages at a time when many are already struggling with energy and food bills. the bank also says the uk will enter recession, but it won t be as severe as they predicted last year. the governor of the bank of england, andrew bailey, has been speaking with our economics editor, faisal islam. we th
welcome to the programme. there are tentative signs that inflation is coming under control, and the recession forecast last year will be shallower and shorter than expected. butjust to make sure, the central banks are raising the interest rates again. yesterday it was the fed, today the bank of england increased the base rate, half a point, to 4% the highest it has been in m years. we think inflation will come down rapidly, and a lot of that is down to energy prices, which have fallen rapidly. but i m afraid there are big risks out there which mean that it may not happen in that way. yet we re still seeing stronger pressure from price and wage setting in the economy in the question is, will that start to ease off? coinciding with the bank s decision came a profit announcement from shell and a rather blunt illustration of why we re all getting poorer. the oil and gas giant has reaped profits of £40 billion last year. the taxman has reaped far less. shell said it paid $1