Energy Firm Bosses Hint at Price Rises

Customer gas and electricity bills are likely to rise over the next few months, energy chiefs have indicated.

Speaking to MPs, executives at Britain's "big six" providers said that the rapidly increasing costs of wholesale fuel would leave the firms with little option but to put prices up. The comments, made to the Commons Business and Enterprise Select Committee, follow reports that gas and electricity bills could be 40 per cent higher by the end of 2008.

Coupled with the double-digit price increases that were imposed by the big six firms at the beginning of the year, this would push average fuel costs in the UK towards an annual total of £1,500.

Addressing the committee, Sam Laidlaw at British Gas' parent company Centrica said: "It is clear that at some point in the future gas prices are going to have to move up." However, he added that the firm had not made a final decision on bill increases.

Mr Laidlaw also addressed the question of "fat cat earnings" at the firm, saying that the company needed to "make a return in this business because we need to invest in new sources of gas for the UK". Centrica's net income stands at £1.2 billion for the last financial year.