Energy giants have pocketed £420billion in profits in just four years as millions of Britons struggle with soaring bills and the cost-of-living crisis – and fat-cat bosses cash in with seven-figure pay-packets.
New figures reveal the staggering amounts made by 20 utility firms since 2020, amid rising inflation as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine helping to hike prices.
British Gas, Shell and BP are among the British-based companies who have been making the most, while campaigners say many hard-pressed families are struggling to afford to keep the heating on.
Shell has accumulated £38.4billion in global profits since 2020, BP £38.4billion and British Gas’s owner Centrica £7.4billion, according to the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor – responsible for more than a quarter of Britain’s gas – has made £117.4billion worldwide in those four years.
Energy company chief executives have been taking home annual pay of up to £8million, with one of them even admitting he ‘can’t justify’ how much he gets.
Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: ‘The energy firms are taking us for April fools.
‘These numbers may look like fantastic amounts to shareholders, but the reality is that these profits have caused pain and suffering among people living in fuel poverty for the last few years.’
Fiona Waters, spokesperson for the Warm This Winter campaign, said: ‘The public are beyond frustrated at being a cash machine for companies who use our broken energy system to cream as much profits as they can out of them, while hard working people are up to their eyeballs in energy debt.’
But Energy UK, which represents generation and supply firms, insisted: ‘While some suppliers have returned to profit recently before that – as Ofgem has pointed out – the GB retail sector had collectively lost £4billion over four years.’
Regulator Ofgem’s average energy price cap stood at £1,179 a year between October 2019 and March 2020, before rising to an annual £1,928 a year between January 1 and March 31 this year but today dropping to £1,690 until June 30.