Green taxes set to cost British families an extra £150 as British Gas blames government for massive 12.5 percent price hike
Three million customers will see their bills rise significantly, as the UK's biggest energy supplier announced the increase from September
GREEN taxes are set to cost British families an extra £150 from next year as British Gas blames the government for a 12.5 per cent price hike.
Three million customers will see their bills rise significantly,, as the UK's biggest energy supplier announced the increase from September.
Green subsidies levied on bills meant, according to the supplier, there was no choice but to raise prices in line with "significant pressures".
Incredibly, the price rise comes despite Ian Conn, the chief executive of BritishGas’s parent company Centrica, admitting its costs had fallen.
He told : "We have seen our wholesale costs fall by about £36 on the typical bill since the beginning of 2014 and that is not the driver.
"It is transmission and distribution of electricity to the home and government policy costs that are driving our price increase.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said: “We don’t recognise these figures put out by British Gas.
"A number of independent reports have shown energy policy costs make up a relatively small proportion of household energy bills.”
British Gas said this would be the first price rise since November 2013 and pledged to help more than 200,000 vulnerable customers with a warm home discount.
A statement published on the British Gas website at midday today, read: “Why we are having to raise electricity prices – our first increase since November 2013”, according to the .
The body of the text only contained the words “blah blah”, suggesting that the post was posted before it was ready.
The UK’s biggest energy firm publishes its half-year results tomorrow, which will reveal how it plans charge customers after its current price freeze ends next month.
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It follows a string of other price hikes from providers, adding to speculation that British Gas may follow suit.
But research by The Big Deal suggests that the energy giant should be cutting bills not putting them up.
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