British Gas reports record £969m profit after price cap increase
British Gas has reported its highest ever first-half profits of almost £1bn after the energy watchdog let it claw back more money from household bills.
The UK’s biggest energy supplier reported profits of £969m for the first six months of 2023, up nearly 900% from £98m in the same period last year.
The profit boom is largely thanks to a tweak to the regulator Ofgem’s energy price cap that allows the supplier to recoup some of the costs of supplying its 10 million customers during the energy crisis.
The supplier’s historic profit highs are likely to anger consumer groups that have campaigned against the supplier’s treatment of vulnerable energy customers as record energy market prices forced millions into fuel poverty.
British Gas’s parent company Centrica prompted outrage among campaigners after reporting a threefold profit rise last year to a record of £3.3bn because of rocketing energy market prices which have fuelled soaring energy bills.
The Centrica chief executive, Chris O’Shea, was told to “examine his conscience” for accepting a £4.5m pay packet, including bonus payouts totalling £3.7m, after it emerged that debt agents working for British Gas broke into the homes of vulnerable customers to fit prepayment meters when they were unable to pay their bills.
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