Centrica, the parent company of Scottish Gas – which recently raised its energy prices by 6 per cent – today said its UK residential services business was on track to deliver double digit growth in profits this year.
The group said the improved result was a result of “cost efficiencies” across the business, which has seen the number of household customer accounts remain broadly flat since the first half of the year.
In a trading update ahead of its full-year results, which are due for release in February, the energy giant said average UK residential gas consumption for the first ten months of the year was 9 per cent higher than for the same period of 2011, reflecting “colder than normal weather in the year to date following an unusually warm 2011”.
The firm said: “Like the rest of the industry we have been faced with higher costs to help upgrade the UK’s gas and electricity grids and to deliver the UK’s carbon reduction targets, both in power generation and in the home.
”These costs, which are out of our control, have added around £50 to the cost of supplying the average household. We have also experienced rising wholesale gas prices, which are 13 per cent higher this winter than last.”