The country’s biggest energy supplier will trim 5.1% off its standard gas price from the middle of next month.
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Yet it comes despite wholesale gas prices having slumped by a third in the past year.
British Gas and EDF have joined their rivals in announcing gas price cuts this year as the industry responds to pressure to pass on savings to consumers. That’s worth around £31 too, and that will come into play on March 24th.
Shares in British Gas parent Centrica fell 3.8 percent by 1214 GMT on Thursday, at 183.9 pence, while France’s EDF traded 2.21 percent lower at 10.28 euros. Will my prices fall?
The energy giants have become the last of the “Big Six” to offer reductions to their customers in recent weeks, following Npower, E.ON, SSE and Scottish Power.
The price cuts may seem like good news, but wholesale gas prices continue to drop by more, so we still think that consumers are paying over the odds for their gas.
Martin Lewis, the founder of the moneysavingexpert.com web site, described British Gas’s 5% gas-only price cut as “paltry”, and said in a message on social networking site that the Big Six energy suppliers were still “ripping off” energy users to the tune of £300 a year in comparison to cheaper suppliers.
Beatrice Bigois, managing director of customers at EDF Energy, said: ” Our prices are under constant review and today’s announcement reflects falls in wholesale gas costs.
“Taken together, our three price reductions will bring the average household’s annual energy bill down by nearly £100”.
British households will not benefit from a fall in market electricity prices because their suppliers are facing rising costs, such as green energy subsidies, which they say cancel out a 30 percent drop in prices since August 2014.
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It said it was the only major supplier to reduce gas prices three times since the start of 2015, resulting in an overall reduction of 14%.
