British Gas to increase prices
June 27, 2005
has warned that it expects its gas to increase significantly over the coming year. , which owns British Gas, said its electricity bills would also increase. It attributed the planned increases to soaring wholesale prices.
In 2004, British Gas increased its prices by 5.9% in January and 12.4% in September.
Centrica also said that a continuing loss of customers meant that British Gas’s profits for the first half of 2005 would be less than the £274m recorded a year ago.
British Gas lost over 1.1 million customers last year, with many unhappy at the price rises.
According to Centrica’s finance director, Phil Bentley, the company expects to increase gas prices by approximately 15%. Centrica said that although British Gas was continuing to lose customers, the loss had steadied to approximately 10,000 a week since May, compared to over 22,000 a week previously.