Independent UK: Calls for inquiry into alleged 'profiteering' of energy giants

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Calls for inquiry into alleged 'profiteering' of energy giants

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Thursday, 21 February 2008


British Gas, the country's biggest energy supplier, is expected to announce a 500 per cent rise in profits today, fuelling outrage among consumer groups which claim the public is being ripped off by the industry.

Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, will tell the Stock Exchange that the BG retail arm, which receives up to five times as many complaints as its rivals, made almost £600m profit in 2007.

Most of the money was made between January and March, when the wholesale price of gas plunged as a result of unusually mild weather and a new gas pipeline from Norway.

During those three months, BG's bosses kept prices high, earning what one analyst has described as "absolutely extraordinary" profits.

Yesterday, there were fresh calls for an official inquiry into whether the "Big Six" energy companies have been profiteering and plunging low earners into choosing whether they eat or heat their homes.

"It's quite sickening when companies make these huge profits while, at the same time, we are expecting 25,000 excess winter deaths as a result of people not being able to keep warm," said Lesley Davies, the chairman of the National Right to Fuel Campaign. "The Government must do more for these consumers.

"They prattle on about the winter fuel payments for pensioners but there are just as many single-parent families and others who cannot get the payment." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/calls-for-inquiry-into-alleged-profiteering-of-energy-giants-784918.html