British Gas profits tumble as household supply arm sees £80m warm weather hit

British Gas owner Centrica has seen annual earnings nearly halve in a “challenging” year as its household supply arm was knocked by an £80 million warm weather hit and as customers switched to cheaper deals.

The group reported underlying operating profits of £814 million for last year, down from £1.55 billion in 2024.

Earnings in its household energy supply business slumped 39% to £163 million as warmer weather meant customers turned down their central heating thermostats.

Centrica said the weather impact was £80 million over the full year.

It added: “Additionally, customers moving to fixed price products, typically at a discount to the standard variable tariff, reduced profitability compared to 2024.”

The group now has nearly a third – 32% – of customers on fixed price tariffs, compared with 25% at the end of 2024.

Chief executive Chris O’Shea said while the trading conditions had been difficult, the supplier had grown customers across its retail arm for the first time in more than a decade.

It saw UK and Ireland household customer numbers increase by 1% to 7.96 million over the year, with 7.5 million in the UK, though this was boosted by 91,000 after taking on the customer base of failed suppliers Rebel Energy and Tomato Energy last year.

The gains from the two collapsed suppliers “offset a small decrease in underlying customers”, it said.

Mr O’Shea said: “The environment has been challenging, and performance has varied across the business.

“However, we have remained disciplined, delivering strong operational performance and achieving customer growth across all our retail businesses simultaneously for the first time in over a decade.”