Control over Great Britain’s 39m smart meters has passed to a non-profit startup after its former owner presided over more than a decade of spiralling costs and delays in the troubled network.

The company owned by crisis-hit outsourcing firm Capita has promised a “seamless transition” to its not-for-profit successor, which will take over running the data network connecting the smart meters from this week.

The handover marks the end of a 13-year licence granted to Smart DCC, a subsidiary of Capita, to set up the country’s first smart meter data network, a process that has been dogged by costly delays while millions of households faced billing issues .

Industry sources said Capita’s subsidiary was effectively blocked from tendering for a new licence to manage the smart meter network after Whitehall officials decided to replace the commercial framework established in 2013 with a not-for-profit public-interest model governed by an independent board.

Instead, the network underpinning Britain’s smart meters…