British Gas/Centrica Profits of near £1bn just show the energy system is broken beyond belief!

I am enraged to see these vast profits being defended by British Gas and Ofgem. How can they possibly defend a 900% rise in profits whilst most households are struggling to pay their energy bills or living with no energy at all in the cold and dark?

I was one of the first to congratulate British Gas for taking steps to help customers during the energy crisis, but the £100 million they have spent in supporting customers now seems fairly insignificant in light of these grotesque profits.

The price cap was deliberately increased by around £100 per household in the first half of the year to give energy firms extra profit to compensate them for missing out on some profits whilst prices were rising, which means we can estimate that around £500 million pounds of this vast profit has been funded by billpayers and taxpayers. We are too concerned with big business and shareholders missing out on profit and not concerned enough with the harsh reality of austerity enforced poverty.

Why are the UK Government forcing billpayers and taxpayers to bail out these energy firms? We are an energy rich country, Scotland is leading the way in renewables, and yet here we are handing over cash to big business and shareholders whilst simultaneously leaving households across these islands to choose between heating and eating!

Questions need to be asked, and I am poised to ask them. What are Ofgem doing? Who is really in control here and why are energy firms being left to effectively self-regulate? This is becoming a ‘tail wags dog’ story between regulator and industry.

Scotland needs complete control of its energy, this current system is broken beyond belief.