While millions of families worry how they are going to pay their soaring bills, the energy firms charging huge prices are laughing all the way to the bank.
The colossal profits announced today by two British giants have been slammed as “obscene”.
British Gas owner Centrica made £1.3billion in the first six months of this year, while Shell raked in £9.4bn in just three months.
The combined profit of almost £11bn prompted calls for the companies to do much more to help struggling households and for the Tories to finally take proper action.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady branded the profits an “insult”, adding: “It’s time working people got their fair share of the wealth they create, starting with real action to bring bills down.”
But Tory leadership front-runner Liz Truss claimed now is “not the time” for energy firms to pay more tax to help with the cost of people’s bills.
Centrica’s profit works out as £85 per second – up five-fold on last year.
Shell’s profits – £1,200 per second – smashed expectations by more than doubling in the space of three months. To add fuel to the fire, both firms chose today to announce a round of shareholder windfalls.
Shell unveiled another near £5bn share buyback plan. Centrica will start paying dividends again after halting them in the depths of the Covid crisis.
Centrica said most profit was from gas production, its nuclear power stake, and selling its holding in a Norwegian firm. Profits at British Gas’ supplier arm fell 43% to £98million.
Centrica chief Chris O’Shea said it is investing £50m to help customers via grants and more call centre staff. The boss, who got £875,000 last year, added: “I’m not immune to this... it’s an incredibly difficult situation.”
Perhaps not all that helpfully, he said a way to manage bills is to use less energy. Many households have already done this as much as possible because they cannot afford the firm’s sky-high gas and electricity prices.
Mr O’Shea did not rule out taking an annual bonus, after waiving £1.1m last year. He also refused to say if British Gas would hike prices to the maximum allowed by regulator Ofgem from October. It is feared a price cap for 23 million households could leap from an average £1,971 a year now to over £3,500 this autumn and more than £3,800 in January.
Shell chief Ben van Beurden, who raked in £6.3m in pay and perks last year, acknowledged its profits are “very significant” and that now is a “difficult period for a lot of people”.
But he said soaring wholesale energy prices were “not our doing”, and that bosses are ploughing billions into securing new sources of energy.
Howard Cox, of the FairFuelUK Campaign, called the profits “truly obscene”. Consumer champion Martin Lewis said people are already faced with “awful choices”. He urged the Government to avert the “mental damage that’s coming” across the UK. Labour’s Ed Miliband said: “The Government is asleep at the wheel.
“They should start by getting rid of the plan to hand £4bn of public money back to the oil and gas giants making record profits in this crisis and using this money to help families.”
