British Gas owner sees profits triple to £3.3bn
British Gas owner Centrica has made huge profits, hitting £3.3bn for 2022, after oil and gas prices soared last year.
The news has sparked calls for energy firms to pay more taxes.
The £3.3bn profits are more than triple the £948m it made in 2021.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy firms have seen record profits as oil and gas prices jumped.
The newly released figures come after British Gas was criticised for using debt agents to force-fit prepayment metres in the homes of vulnerable customers.
The calls for firms to pay more tax come amid the cost of living crisis in the UK, with households struggling with bills and food costs.
Centrica’s bumper profits
The majority of Centrica’s bumper profits came from its nuclear and oil and gas business, rather than from the British Gas energy supply business, which contributed £72 million out of the £3.3bn profit. The overall profit figure included the impact of selling its Spirit Energy oil and gas business in May.
Centrica said British Gas’s profits had actually decreased by 39% compared with 2021, largely because of the donations it had made to support customers and the repayment of furlough funds it had received at the height of the pandemic.
The company said it paid about £1bn in tax relating to its 2022 profits.
Of that, it said about £54 million was paid as a result of the windfall tax, which was introduced last year to recoup some of the extraordinary earnings made by firms and help fund lower gas and electricity bills for households.
