Fuel price row rumbles on as Centrica half-year earnings reveal profits hit £1bn

The parent company of British Gas today has announced profits of a billion pounds.

Although the company says its half-year earnings from energy customers are lower than last year.

Meanwhile, fuel poverty campaigners have accused it of unfair profiteering.

Of Centrica’s £1 billion overall profits for the first half of 2024, its earnings from the British Gas division fell from £969m to £159m.

Cash on its balance sheet has risen from £2.7 billion last year to £3.2 billion.

Although these profits are down from a year ago, that’s largely because 2023 figures were distorted by unusually high earnings from the peak prices of the energy crisis.

Today’s figures show what energy bosses regard as more “normalised” profits.

Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning

Today, fuel poverty groups have led the criticism. Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented, “These profits are built on the backs of the millions of people suffering from record energy prices, which are simply unaffordable”.

Meanwhile, Centrica is pointing to the help it is making available to struggling customers and to invest in a “greener, fairer future”.

The number of fuel-poor households has more than doubled in the past four years to almost nine million.

Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode…