Energy
Prices and profits soarWORKERS, MAR 2008 ISSUE
Centrica (British Gas) is raising its prices by 15 per cent at a time when profits from residential dwellings were over £600 million in the first six months of 2007 – and overall group profits are over £2 billion.
British Gas justifies its price rises on the basis of alleged wholesale price rises and operating costs. Yet the wholesale cost of gas has actually fallen by 70 per cent.
During the past three years British Gas has cleared an annual profit of over £1 billion, this year doubling that. Profiteering springs to mind, and if the statistics are correct for British Gas they will also hold up for other energy and utilities companies who continue to effectively print money.
Shell, the oil giant, announced profits for the similar period of over £13.9 billion, this at a time when fuel is at its highest price ever. We must be mad to put up with this daylight robbery!