The energy supplier British Gas is being urged to freeze its prices on gas and electricity after it saw record profits for the first half of this year.
British Gas made 3.2% more profits from its domestic energy consumers during the first half of 2013, this is in comparison with the same time the year before. The gas and electricity giant increased its prices by 6% just in time for the record freezing winter we had last year.
As a result of the freezing winter of 2012 domestic gas consumption went up by 18%, this was over the first four month period of this year. The increase in gas consumption along with the price increase made by energy supplier saw British Gas’s parent company Centrica make 9% profit increases to £1.58billion. As the profits were released of Centrica this morning, the share price saw massive jumps in a positive direction.
All About Savings are urging that British Gas should freeze their prices for the rest of 2013. As the profits for British Gas are up so much from last year we urge the energy giant to commit to a price freeze, giving their customers some peace of mind.
With winter now in sight many domestic energy users are already starting to worry about how they are going to cope and pay for their fuel bills this winter. They worry that is there is more hikes in prices that they will struggle to pay their bills. Research has shown that 7/10 households went without heating for a period of time last year so that they could keep the cost of their energy bills down.
The Chief executive of Centrica, Sam Laidlaw spoke out after hearing this recent news. He stated that gas consumption was up last year because of the harsh winter that Britain embraced. He wanted to let his customers know that they are doing everything possible to make sure that they can help their customers keep their gas and electricity costs down with winter, along with this he stated that they are trying to make their bills most transparent and easier to understand.
The news released today about the massive profits that British Gas have made for the first half of 2013 is going to cause some anger from its customers.
All eyes are not stuck on British Gas though, as the french energy supplier EDF released its financials for the first half of this year yesterday. They also saw record high profits for the first half of this year, making £903million over the first six months. Like the Centrica owner company EDF said these profits were only because gas usage was up as a result of the freezing winter we had.
The current economic climate in the United Kingdom is not good, as a result of this many people are struggling to pay their bills. While this is all happening the ‘big wigs’ at the UK’s energy suppliers are taking millions of pounds worth of bonuses, this reality is the harsh truth.
If British Gas do take the advice to freeze it’s prices for the rest of the year it will hopefully make a path for other energy suppliers to follow. With research showing that UK energy consumers have large amounts of mistrust in their suppliers, something needs to be done to reassure the public.
If British Gas do freeze their energy prices for the rest of 2013 it will only be for domestic customers, we doubt that this move will affect the business energy users in anyway unfortunately.