British gas increasing price of electricity

T itle"> The owner of British Gas, Centrica has said that it’s set to increase electricity prices by 12.5% from 15th September. Apparently, gas prices will remain unchanged, but the price at which electricity is being distributed isn’t sustainable as the company is going into losses. Centrica confirms that the rise is a result of rise in transmission and distribution costs, and not the wholesale costs, which have actually seen a fall rather than a rise. This price rise will affect around 3.1 million customers in England, but Centrica defends the rise saying that they have not changed the prices since November 2013 and that even now, British Gas is one of the last suppliers to raise its prices. They also claim that their most vulnerable customers (almost 200,000 people) will get a discount and be credited with £76 under the Warm Home Discount scheme. Centrica tried to put the blame for the increased prices on government policy, but the government seems to want no part in the blame game. Centrica CEO also said that they were selling electricity at a loss, so this change was a long time coming. However, the customers, who are already paying a lot for electricity, only see an increase and don’t care about who’s to blame. The fact that concerns them is that they now have to pay an extra £76 over and above what they’re already paying. However, Centrica’s chief defends British Gas, saying that they held off increasing the prices for too long, concerned for its 3.1 million customers, but unfortunately, they couldn’t hold it off any longer. They plan to give discounts to the poorer people to at least make it a bit easier for them, but we don’t know how much it is going to help.