{"id":25126,"date":"2022-08-25T06:54:18","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T06:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=25126"},"modified":"2022-08-25T06:54:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T06:54:18","slug":"british-gas-to-donate-10-of-profits-to-struggling-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/08\/25\/british-gas-to-donate-10-of-profits-to-struggling-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"British Gas to donate 10% of profits to struggling customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Gas has announced it will donate 10% of its profits to help its poorer customers manage rising gas and electricity bills for the \u201cduration of the energy crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ahead of an expected rise in the price cap on energy on Friday, the company\u2019s owner, Centrica, said it would donate \u00a312m this autumn into an existing support fund. Grants of \u00a3250 to \u00a3750 would be given to poorer customers, and the pledge to donate 10% of profits every six months would last for the duration of the energy crisis \u201cbackdated to the start of 2022\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n

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The Centrica boss, Chris O\u2019Shea, said: \u201cAs a responsible business we want to do more to support our customers during this difficult time. This increased investment in supporting our customers adds to the financial support and advice we already offer and ensures more grants will be available as we go into this winter.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re proud to have put together a \u00a325m-plus customer support package, which will grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The regulator Ofgem will publish its latest update to the energy price cap on Friday, with a uniform expectation of a steep increase in the price households pay for energy.<\/p>\n

The average annual domestic energy bill is currently capped at \u00a31,971, but this is forecast to hit \u00a33,582 in the autumn and as much as \u00a34,400 in April.<\/p>\n

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Two-thirds of UK families could be in fuel poverty by January, research<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Centrica reported adjusted operating profits of \u00a31.3bn in the six months to June \u2013 up from \u00a3262m a year earlier \u2013 most of which came from oil and gas drilling.<\/p>\n

However, the latest offer of support will be based on British Gas\u2019s retail supply profits, which were \u00a398m.<\/p>\n

The government has promised a package of help but there have been warnings many people will face significant financial hardship without further support.<\/p>\n

The announcement came after the head of EDF Energy\u2019s retail business warned on Tuesday that the UK faces a \u201cdramatic and catastrophic winter for customers\u201d as energy prices soar.<\/p>\n

Philippe Commaret, the energy firm\u2019s managing director for customers, called for extra government intervention, including help for households to insulate their homes and a VAT cut for small businesses as prices jumped to record levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe face, despite the support the government has already announced, a dramatic and catastrophic winter for customers,\u201d Commaret told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn January, half of the UK households might be in fuel poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British Gas has announced it will donate 10% of its profits to help its poorer customers manage rising gas and electricity bills for the \u201cduration of the energy crisis\u201d. Ahead of an expected rise in the price cap on energy on Friday, the company\u2019s owner, Centrica, said it would donate \u00a312m this autumn into an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[2735,11941,5268,7775,13263,8440,5262,1556,5800,5494,6738,6569,9643,5491,2264,6566,10598,6663,12773,9343,6553,5441,12727,6027,9431,12103,10390,6664,12605,5815,8632,3954,8964],"class_list":["post-25126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-bbc","tag-bill","tag-british","tag-british-gas","tag-cap","tag-crisis","tag-cut","tag-edf","tag-electricity","tag-energy","tag-families","tag-fuel","tag-fund","tag-gas","tag-government","tag-grants","tag-homes","tag-households","tag-increase","tag-investment","tag-ofgem","tag-oil","tag-package","tag-pledge","tag-poverty","tag-price","tag-prices","tag-regulator","tag-uk","tag-uniform","tag-vat","tag-will","tag-winter"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}