British Gas and SSE join EDF in energy price cuts

Energy consumers are getting an unexpected sprinkling of cheer in the usually grim weeks of January as half of the 'Big Six' pass on price cuts.


EDF said yesterday it was cutting prices, and today British Gas and SSE followed suit.

According to British Gas its customers will see an immediate 5% cut in standard electricity prices.

A total of 5.3m British Gas single rate electricity customers on a variable tariff will benefit from the price reduction, each saving an average £24 on their annual electricity bill – an overall saving of £100m according to the company.

But of course the cuts are not as good when you factor in that British Gas raised electricity prices by 16% last August.

British Gas managing director for energy, Ian Peters, said: “We want to keep prices as low as possible for our customers.

“Household budgets are stretched and we are doing everything we can to help our customers keep their bills down.

Rivals SSE has also announced a cut in its unit price for household gas by 4.5% to come into force from March 26.

This will help a further 3.5m households and cut typical gas bills by around £28 a year, according to the firm’s figures.

SSE generation and supply director, Alistair Phillips-Davies, said: “I hope that this package of measures will give our customers some respite from the seemingly endless rises in household costs that we have seen in recent times.

“The cut in household gas bills shows customers that we will bring down prices when we can and our decision to extend to October our pledge not to increase prices will give our customers some additional certainty about the costs they will face in the course of this new year.”

Luke Walsh

 

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