removing gas meter - any downsides?

[MaryIsA]

Our heating is oil. The gas is only in for the hob that we are changing to induction.

The meter is old and the options are get it removed completely or just turned off. I think we just get rid, it's in an ugly hole chipped into the wall on the outside that's covered up by a very old door.

Any downsides though? Would that put you off moving into a house if you had to get a gas meter reinstated?

Are you rural?

Gas central heating is thought to be more efficient than oil and most people would chose the former.

Is there any reason that your house has oil fired heating? (Ie. the gas supply to the area came after the oil fired heating was installed).

With oil fired heating in place, knowing that I had to bear the cost of reinstalling a gas meter (and possibly more costs to reconnect the gas supply) would put me off.

I wouldn't want oil fired heating if I had an alternative - I've heard too many stories about people forgetting to order oil, getting ripped off by oil suppliers or having their oil stolen from their tank.

I'd leave it in situ for the time being. Just buy or build a new smarter box to cover it.

With the government pushing air pups, solar and non-gas boilers then it may not be used in future. BUT as of today a gas meter is a plus for the cheapest / most common heating and cooking option.

oil is still cheaper per unit heat, and efficiency is defined by the boiler not the fuel.

With oil you can also manage when you buy it according to price, which you can't with gas. I have the best of both worlds, I cook on bottled LPG as there's no mains gas here. £37 per year.

if you keep an unused gas meter, will you need to pay a standing charge?

Oil is definitely cheaper where I live. It will no doubt be phased out at some point, but it it comes to that point we'll put a new meter in if we are here, and there would have to be support for people to do that anyway as alternatives are phased out.

I'm not desperately keen on having oil...I don't like the boiler, I don't like the tank. But its so much cheaper.

It's very common to just have oil where I live.

I'd have thought that having the gas meter removed won't get you any better off cosmetically because they'll just cap the pipe at the meter rather than removing the whole pipe "stub" from the main supply in the street.
That means you'll still have to keep the box, it'll just be more spacious inside!

We'll tidy up the box whatever we do!

Ah, ok well if you're planning to keep the box and just tidy it up then get the supply capped - if/when you or a subsequent owner wants mains gas it's an easy enough job to get a new meter fitted (and then have a gas engineer connect it to the appliances).
I'd see it as a positive - you have the option to get mains gas or not which is a nice choice rather than being forced to have mains gas when it sounds like the house doesn't need it currently.