British Gas has announced that it made profits of £571m last year - a 501% increase on the £95m it made in 2006. Npower, has also announced record profits – it made £544m last year. This is great news for shareholders, but what about customers? Consumers are set to see their energy bills rise by an average of 15% following recent price increases and the industry regulator Ofgem has announced an investigation into whether there is fair competition in the energy market. What do you think - do you feel you are being ripped off by your provider?

---

Community

Citing a number and stating it is a company's profit is pretty meaningless if you do not include the turnover.

Why don't you clarify it for us then?

Why should I have to do the journalist's job? They should provide the necessary information and present it to their readers. Individual readers should not have to track down the information themselves.

Although the numerical profits have increased by 500% the actual profit has only increased by something like 35%, ie from 6.55% last year to 8.85% this year. So moneysupermarket are inflating the increase fourteen-fold in their headline before asking a survey question.

(NB all figures are approximate due to the poor reporting of the subject. I haven't tracked down all the required information so I have made some guesses.)

You do have a point, to an extent but it gets enormously complicated.The figure quoted represents the 'operating profit' made in the residential market and is fair to say that the rise was 5 fold.Yes you can express any number of financial ratios which will reflect a slightly different measure.I think you have chosen to use profit/turnover and that will of course dilute the answer,because the turnover is absolutely enormous.Equally you could have asked for operating profit per customer where the figure went from just under £6 to £36 (a six fold increase).

I think MS are just reflecting and generating interest around the increases.I wouldn't be too picky about that as you have explained there is a mass of data which can be analysed to paint a picture depending upon your viewpoint.I can guess what the poll outcome will say as I am sure you can.

I agree whole heartedly. So much so that I used your service to find a better supplier and should save £120 a year. That additional money is pure profit on top of the profit still being made from me.

I cannot believe the apathy and lethargy in the British Public at the moment concerning fuel and energy prices. We are being absolutely taken advantage of and the silence is deafening especially from the Government who have sat on the fence and creamed in as much additional tax revenue as they can to plug their ailing fiscal policy. The energy providers who are mostly owned by overseas companies are consumed with an avarice and greed that beggars belief and asks the question how we could ever allow our utilities to be controlled outside of these shores.

I would like one energy provider to tell me why when wholesale prices collapsed last year they failed to pass on the savings until after the peak demand period had passed and then only a small percentage of what they were enjoying justifying this action by saying they were still using energy bought earlier that they had paid a higher price for. Yet..... when the wholesale price increases they immediately pass on an enormous price increase even though based on their own argument they must still be using energy they bought at the lower wholesale price. It is a complete mockery and the sooner we get some form of regulatory control over energy prices and profit levels the better.