When Phoenix were connecting houses to the gas network was the placement of the meter decided by the home owner or dictated by Phoenix?

Recently moved house and I want to convert from oil fired central heating to gas. The positioning of the gas meter makes no sense to me and I’ve been told that to connect it to a boiler my options are to dig up the driveway and route the gas pipe round the back of the house at considerable expense or run the gas pipe from the meter up the front of the house and have the boiler in the roof space. Anyone encountered anything similar? The house is semi detached and the neighbour’s gas meter is in a totally different position (and one that makes more sense).