British Gas see's profits of £2million a day

British Gas was dubbed a ‘recession-free zone’ yesterday for scooping profits of £2million a day from its ten million customers who were forced to keep the heating on during months of dismal weather.

The company triggered a furious reaction when it said its profits for the first six months of 2012 had jumped by 23 per cent to £345million.

British Gas revealed it had made £64million more from its residential customers than during the first half of last year.
Unions accused the company, Britain’s biggest energy giant, of ‘sidestepping austerity Britain’.

Last night, British Gas ignored a clamour of calls to cut its rates, or to pledge not to raise them for the rest of the year, like some of its rivals, such as E.on.

In 2003, a typical family spent £530 a year on their annual ‘dual fuel’ bill, which includes gas and electricity.

Today the same family would pay £1,260 a year, despite using exactly the same amount of fuel, according to the watchdog Consumer Focus.

In May, British Gas’s parent company, Centrica, which revealed profits of £1.4billion, said wholesale energy prices for next winter had increased, warning the trend for tariffs ‘remains upwards’.

Audrey Gallacher, director of energy at Consumer Focus, said the ruthless tactics of profit- hungry energy giants had led to a major breakdown in trust with their customers.

Utility companies were suspiciously quick at passing on rising wholesale costs to consumers, but slow to drop prices when they fell, she said.

‘Hard-pressed consumers will be shocked to see such a big rise in profits when British Gas has been warning of the need for price increases,’ she
added.

‘The disconnection between profits and prices risks deepening consumer distrust over energy bills.’

Consumer Focus chief executive Mike O’Connor said the energy industry seemed to be ‘a recession-free zone’.

He said he would like to say to British Gas: ‘You’re making £2million every day of the week; I think it’s about time you gave consumers a break.’
But Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, will not struggle to pay his energy bill, unlike many of his customers who are battling to cope with pay freezes, pay cuts or redundancy.

Last year, he scooped a pay package of £1.29million – and was also eligible for a discount of his energy bill of up to £684.

Last night, British Gas refused to reveal whether Mr Laidlaw took the staff discount, but said it had been scrapped this year.

Caroline Flint, the shadow energy secretary, said: ‘People will not understand why just a couple of months ago British Gas was threatening more price hikes this winter, while it has seen profits soar.

‘The public will be getting a raw deal if they are forced  to stomach even higher bills and bear the cost for investment  in our energy infrastructure, while the big energy companies get away with making more  profits and paying out more to their shareholders.’

Mike Jeram, head of business at the union, Unison, said: ‘British Gas seems to have sidestepped austerity Britain and passed the pain of the double-dip recession onto their domestic customers.

‘How can it be right that families across the UK are suffering from pay freezes, job cuts and struggle to pay their fuel bills, at the same time as the company is posting a profit hike?

‘We need strong regulation and government action to protect families and pensioners from profiteering.’

26/07/2012 – Dailymail.co.uk

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