British Gas Customers:

British Gas customers - around 16 million of them - will pay around a third more for gas and electricity from next month with average bills rising to £1300 a year.  And British Gas owner Centrica warns that domestic gas bills will almost double over the next few years if oil prices, as expected, remain high. 

The other five major energy suppliers - E.ON, EDF, Scottish and Southern Energy, ScottishPower and npower - are expected to announce similar price increases in the next few weeks. A report published by Centrica says that rising oil prices are forcing a tectonic shift in the UK’s energy markets and blames the runaway prices on the dwindling supplies of gas from the North Sea, forcing suppliers to import more.