British Gas hints again at energy price rises on the way

Published 05th Jul 2011

British Gas, one of the big six energy companies, has hinted that it will announce a price hike within weeks.

At the Commons Energy Select Committee on yesterday, Ian Peters, British Gas's chief operating officer, said: ‘Unless there is a fundamental shift in the way the commodity markets are going to play out in the next few weeks then, on the balance of probability, we will reluctantly put the price up. I'm not going to get drawn into precisely when or how.’

Yesterday, Centrica, owner of British Gas told the stock market that higher wholesale prices, weak consumption and higher North Sea production taxes will all hit its financial performance.

Earlier this month energy regulator, Ofgem, confirmed that wholesale energy prices have risen by 30 per cent since December.

This is the second warning of price rises from British Gas this month after Sir Roger Carr, the chairman of Centrica said further increases were inevitable after Scottish Power announced a rise in electricity and gas tariffs.

Scottish Power was the first energy firm to announce rise in power and gas tariffs for this summer earlier this month. It said it would be increasing gas prices by 19 per cent and electricity by 10 per cent from August, much to the anger of customers.

Mark Vickery, from Energyhelpline.com said: ‘This comes as no real surprise to us as Scottish Power announced price rises earlier this month and we expect British Gas’s to be up to 20 per cent for gas and just below 10 per cent for electricity.’

Source: ' ThisIsMoney '

View All Latest Articles