The owner of British Gas has sparked fury by revealing it made record profits of more than £3.3 billion last year.
Centrica, Britain’s biggest energy supplier, more than trebled its underlying profits to £3.31 billion from £948 million in 2021. The previous record was £2.7 billion made in 2012.
The profits were earned in a year when household and business energy bills rocketed to unprecedented levels after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago sent wholesale gas prices soaring.
The Centrica results also come weeks after British Gas suspended the forced installation of pre-payment meters over concern about its treatment of vulnerable customers.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: “This is a betrayal for British Gas customers across the country who are struggling to keep their heating on. Once again the government’s failure to implement a proper windfall tax is allowing oil and gas businesses to make billions off the back of hardworking families.
“What makes this worse is that thousands of British Gas customers have had their homes broken into and prepayments forcibly installed because they could no longer afford to pay their sky high bills.
“This cannot continue. Liberal Democrats are calling for the Tories to finally bring in a proper Windfall Tax and the cancellation of Government plans to increase energy bills by £500 in April.”
Centrica’s British Gas Energy supply division made £72 million profits down from £118 million. Most of the rest of the group’s profits came from its energy marketing and trading, North Sea gas production and a share in nuclear power generation.
The results come the day after energy regulator Ofgem said suppliers’ suspension of forced prepayment meter installations will last for the next six weeks.
After it was revealed how agents working for British Gas used court warrants to enforce installation of pre-payment meters, Centrica boss Chris O’Shea conceded the practice was completely unacceptable.”
British Gas has around 10 million customers. The cap on average household bills soared from £1,277 in March last year to £4,279 in January 2023, intensifying the cost of living crisis for families and business.
However, the Government’s Energy Price guarantee means a typical household will not pay more than £2,500 until April when the guarantee ceiling is lifted to £3,000.
O’Shea, who earns a basic salary of £875,000, last year gave up a bonus of more than £1 million for 2021 because of the “hardships faced by our customers”.
