A lot of energy still being expended on utility prices debate

Comment Martin Flanagan

The energy prices controversy is not going to fade anytime soon. Centrica’s latest increase in profits, although pedestrian rather than shoot-the-lights-out, will help fuel it.

Sometimes it appears a dialogue of the deaf. Centrica, owner of Scottish Gas, says it lost 400,000 customers last year, with hordes of new challenger suppliers out there in the market.

But it is unlikely to stop sabre-rattling by governments, who continue to be unimpressed at what seems the somewhat leisurely pace at times of Britain’s Big Six energy suppliers in passing on any fall in energy wholesale prices.

Centrica boss Iain Conn counters that his group’s standard tariff is cheaper than 95 per cent of standard tariffs on the market, and that small rivals not having the burden of environmental levies means there is not a level playing field.

But Mark Todd of comparison website energyhelpline said scathingly yesterday: “Having the cheapest standard tariff in the Big Six is like winning a race at the Snail Olympics” – not a “lot of taking on board”, then. bankers and more plumped-up capital cushions than had been expected. Any rights issue speculation now looks simply inappropriate.

However, this morning sector shadows will lengthen again, with Royal Bank of Scotland set to unveil its ninth consecutive year of losses and the bank till in the dark about the level of financial pain looming from the US department of justice on subprime related securities.

The underlying picture seems to be Lloyds and Barclays in decent recoverymode, HSBC financially strong but given its global footprint worried about big picture factors, and RBS shackled to its past.