British Gas profit while I freeze

Wake up people...this is CARTEL TIME couresy of the greedy TORIES (privatise and sit on the Board..). You think PFI-Gordon is going to change things?
An autistic-spectrum PM and women-only parrots...does anybody seriously think thy give a sh*t??

We were told prices would be coming down when the new Gas pipeline from Norway was finished and the new gas supply from this country started in early 2007?

In fact in 2006 the UK Government said it could ignore Gas and Electric costs in the Inflation figures, because High energy prices were ONLY temporary and would come down when things like this pipeline were finished. It's 2008, Energy prices never really came down, (they went down but quickly went back up!)

The Government says WAGE inflation is 2%, but for Council Tax inflation has to be capped at 5% (meaning some want a higher figure.). Anyone notice how the same Government is saying inflation is two different figures, one for wages, one for council tax? Part of the reason is higher Gas bills for all those council buildings! Yet us Joe Public, what we don't have higher gas bills? Liars!

British gas profits (and the rest of the energy companies) are obscene. I agree with the poster that it's the fact they rub our faces in their greed that really gets my back up. They have us by the short and curlies though because we all need to stay warm, cook etc. Funny how when the raw product prices goes back down we still don't get our bills reduced!

Good King Windless looked out on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel allowance.

£200 a year? How feeble

All gas, water and electricity in this country should be supplied to all citizens at a known fixed price The competitive nature of the present market is a farce. In other words the whole game should be re-nationalised. There is damm all relation between whom you pay and what comes into your house via the supply lines and pipes. The whole so-called competitive market is entirely phoney. All we are doing is making some very fatcats even fatter still.

Why the fuss? Nobody kicks up a stink when tesco or any other company announces profit. People seem to think they have some god given right to gas and electric. They are both a service provided my private companies. So yes they are going to profit...thats the point of a business

The Government don't care about BG charging high prices. For 2 reasons, first the government agreed to the privatisation of the company and second the government is so desperate to spend money on its useless schemes that it needs BG to make large profits so it can rake in more Corporation Tax to try and reduce its mis-manged borrowings! The Conservatives will NOT be changing any of this.

If you personally were offered the chance to make a bigger salary 10 times what you earn now you are not going to turn it down. The Directors of BG are in just this position. They don't have to care about customers if they done LOSE customers. If that's not happening then the Directors know they can charge higher prices because they know their customers are too lazy to change because it's a hassle. Sadly for you though Shareholders are NOT so accommodating. They EXPECT a bigger dividend every year if they don't get it the Director may lose her million pound+ salary/bonus/perks etc. You the customer have only ONE power to change this - to leave BG! If as Don says it's too much hassle (and yes I agree it can be) you will have lost the argument about high profits, rip-off prices etc if you Give Up! Please DON'T!!!! Bite the Bullet, transfer to another supplier. Nationalisation is not coming back for many years yet.

The UK under this disgusting government is definetely "going to the dogs" and the way people are being ripped off by greedy companies that supply the basics necessary to life - light, heating, water - is symptomatic of that. I am now seriously looking to emigrate before things get even worse - I may as well leave this country to the hordes of immigrants who are claiming it anyway. This government has let us all down!

I know where you are coming from Bill, I too work from home and sit here many a day freezing my b**ls off. I was with Powergen (PG) a couple of years ago, then British Gas (BG) came to the door telling me they were X% cheaper than PG and they could save me £'s. I agreed to sign up with them. It took about a month to complete the transfer, and I had to pay off any monies owed to PG before the transfer happened (which I couldn't really afford at the time). Anyway, about six months later, may have been less, they put their prices up and were now more expensive than PG, over the twelve month period they saved me nothing. The hassle of changing supplier is just too much (plus the fact you have to pay off the previous supplier too, not everyone can afford to do this). I agree with Ed, f**k privatisation and fatcat profits, all the utility companies should be nationalised. One last thing... VAT on power supplies, f**k that, it's not a f****ing luxury, it's a way of staying alive!!

Hey, at least we have water, electricity etc. Imagine those poor blighters in Zim who have 2 hours of electricity a day - on a good day.

In protest, we can follow the South African example in the UK, don't pay our utility bils.....get cut-off......we riot and destroy public property.......the power/water gets turned back on. Simple.

JD get real, ALL suppliers have a high cost, it's just swings and roundabouts.

There's NO way out of the cost of gas or electric, until the government take ALL energy suppliers BACK from the shareholders.THEY are the ones making money.

GAS, ELECTRIC, WATER, all should be Nationalized, and taken OUT of privatization So EVERYBODY benefits from ZERO PROFIT.

Why don't you change your supplier? British Gas are a complete rip-off