As one of the oldest companies in the world, going back over 200 years old, British Gas is the current leading energy supplier in the UK market with over 500,000 businesses and over 11.6 million UK homes being supplied with gas and energy each year.
Operating in 20 countries in the UK and Ireland as well as North America, Ukraine, Brazil and even Hong Kong as a third party distributor or legal entity and personnel. British Gas is a huge player in the energy market. Today, British Gas engages in the transition to lower carbon energy and renewable resources, and encourage other companies to do the same with post top financial incentives for businesses going green.
To few’s surprise, we can share with you that Scottish Gas is the trading name given to Centrica PLC’s (named Britain’s ‘Most Admired Company’) Scottish section, which is known as British Gas elsewhere throughout the UK. In short, this is the same company using different titles throughout the UK. In contrast to this, it is important to note, though, that Scottish Power and Scottish Gas are not the same company. Despite holding similar names, the two big six groups are owned by rival businesses.
British Gas CEO Scott Wheway was announced as a Senior Management partner of Centrica’s in March 2020, after Charles Berry stepped down as Chairman, and Iain Conn stepped down as CEO in the same year.
These changes were made after operating profit for 6 months ending June 2019 showed a 49% fall to £399 million, and trier a 58% cut to the interim dividend, that caused the companies share price to fall to it’s lowest in 22 years.
Despite the company having a live chat option available on their website (simply click the blue “chat” box in the bottom right corner of your screen), you may want to speak to someone directly.
You can contact British Gas’ 0800 number at 0800 0227 8625 for free, but if you would prefer to speak to a real person, you can do that by calling their 0333 202 9604 number between Monday and Friday, from 8am – 8pm. This number should allow you to access information from a real person about your gas, electricity and HomeCare as a customer.
LoveEnergySaving focuses on British Gas as a multi-award winning business. They won the Sunday Times “Top 25 Best Big Companies to Work for” in both 2010 and 2011, as well as “Business Transformation of the Year” at the British Insurance Awards 2011.
They also hold titles within National Customer Service Awards, where they earned “Complaints Team of the Year” 2010 and uSwitch Large Supplier of the year 2020.
USwitch Energy Supplier Information 2020 featured a comparison between the big six for changes in pricing from Oct 1 2019 to Oct 1 2020, with British coming last to EDF Energy 1st and E.ON second. The chart is based on a medium energy user (using 2,900 kWhs of electricity a year and 12,000kWhs of gas a year) on a standard dual fuel tarrif. As you can see below, these suppliers share the same identical drops in pricing over the course of that report.
| Supplier | Price change 1 | Date effective | Price change 2 | Date Effective | Price Change 3 | Date Effective |
| EDF Energy | -6% | 1 October 2019 | -1% | 1 April 2020 | -7% | 1 October 2020 |
| E.ON | -6% | 1 October 2019 | -1% | 1 April 2020 | -7% | 1 October 2020 |
| British Gas | -6% | 1 October 2019 | -1% | 1 April 2020 | -7% | 1 October 2020 |
| Scottish Power | -6% | 1 October 2019 | -1% | 1 April 2020 | -7% | 1 October 2020 |
| SSE | -6% | 1 October 2019 | -1% | 1 April 2020 | -7% | 1 October 2020 |
| NPower | -6% | 1 October 2019 | -1% | 1 April 2020 | -7% | 1 October 2020 |
Which.com rated British Gas a 3/5 star rating for bill accuracy and 2/5 star rating towards value for money. Unlike many rival suppliers, British Gas list their cheapest prices on their own website over making these difficult to find amongst different comparison sites, though the likes of GoCompare do have opportunity to host a variety of different tarrif options that may be better suited to you and your home or business.
| British Gas | Bill Accuracy | Customer Service | Complaints handling | Digital tools | Value for money | Customer Score | Procedures & practices score |
| 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 | 2/5 | 60% | 80% |
To start a comparison, all you need is your postcode.
If you have access to this, your current provider and tariff can help us find your information faster, and structure a plan that is better for you.
We also need to know how much energy you use. This can be in kilowatt-hours (often written as kWh) or in pounds. You can find this information by looking at your energy bill, and using this guide to understanding your energy bill where necessary.
Lastly, check whether you are on a fixed rate tariff and whether you will be charged an exit fee for leaving early.