Centrica plc today announced that its British Gas business is to increase its domestic gas prices by 5.3 per cent from 3rd January 2002. The increase will add 32 pence per week to the average domestic gas bill.
British Gas’s year on year gas costs have increased by 22 per cent in a marketplace where wholesale costs have almost doubled in the last 18 months, and the decision to raise prices has been taken against this background of continuing high gas costs facing the industry.
Mike Alexander, Managing Director of British Gas Trading, said: “We’ve held off as long as possible and absorbed a significant element of the increased cost to keep the price rise low. Indeed when high gas costs led to a rise in domestic gas prices across the industry earlier this year, our increase was amongst the lowest.
“We’ve also worked hard to help reduce the impact by introducing new services such as a capped electricity contract, energy efficiency measures and support for our more vulnerable customers.”
Prices for British Gas’s 5.5 million electricity customers, which fell by 3.7 per cent in April this year, remain unchanged.
To find out more about the price changes visit www.house.co.uk