Centrica

British Gas owner Centrica has defended paying £59 million to shareholders after its profits surged fivefold to £1.3 billion thanks to high energy prices.

British Gas was privatised in 1986 when the public were encouraged to buy shares through the “Tell Sid” campaign. O’Shea, 48, acknowledged it was “likely be a difficult winter” and called on the government to increase help for consumers. O’Shea said: “Over the next couple of years we’re expecting to pay a windfall tax of probably well over £600 million on our UK gas business off the back of the profits that we’re seeing, so a lot of this is going back into society.” O’Shea said the costly failures showed that Britain needed to have “strong, well-funded, stable energy companies”. He said he expected to see British Gas customers using less energy as a result of high prices, and appeared to suggest they should consider doing so. Chris O’Shea, chief executive, acknowledged that Britain was facing “the most challenging energy crisis in living memory” but said “the source of our profits is not customers’ rising energy bills”. The profit surge was driven by higher prices benefiting its North Sea oil and gas and nuclear businesses, while profits at British Gas actually fell.

Centrica Plc will stop selling power and natural gas to its biggest business customers as surging wholesale energy costs erode profit margins at the UK ...

News of billion-pound profits comes after UK households warned average annual bill could hit £3850 by 2023.

“I’m very mindful that that is a difficult message to hear, but it is what it is.” Miliband said Truss “appears to believe that the cost of living crisis can be solved by abandoning renewable energy – the cheapest form of power we have. It will take effect from October, with another increase expected in January. According to forecasts issued earlier this week, unless the flow of Russian gas into Europe increases, average dual-fuel tariffs could soar to £3,850 a year from January. More than 8m households – one in three in the UK – will fall into fuel poverty after October’s price cap rise, according to National Energy Action. Fuel poverty is defined as spending more than 10% of household income on energy. Labour has yet to come up with a comprehensive policy to tackle exorbitant bills. “But we cannot perform miracles either,” he said.