Standing Charges On Domestic Bills - Why?

[CHEESEY13]

I quizzed my energy provider's Customer Services, just out of curiosity, and was informed, patiently and politely, that "it's for the maintenance of your SmartMeter."
Eh?
But it was installed ages ago and is read remotely - which is supposed to be the reason for the darn things to exist - nobody from the energy provider has been near it since the day it arrived!

What maintenance? The maintenance of shareholders dividends and their hefty champagne and caviar bills? Just saying........

It's nonsense to say that it's for smart meters, obviously. The idea is that it goes towards the suppliers' fixed costs: cables, pipes, offices, helplines. But the level is controversial at the moment and Ofgem are consulting on it. If they reduced the standing charge they'd load the cost per unit accordingly, so low users would win and high users would lose.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/ofgem-opens-conversation-energy-standing-charges-ahead-winter#:~:text=The%20standing%20charge%20is%20a,how%20much%20energy%20you%20use.