For a cheaper energy tariff – 0800 980 6005
For customers moving home – 0800 048 0303
For questions about your bill – 0800 048 0202
For prepayment customers – 0800 048 0303
The biggest supplier of gas and electricity in the UK, British Gas (known as Scottish gas in Scotland) can be traced back to 1812, when the Gas Light and Coke Company was founded by Royal Charter.
It was the first company to provide utilities to the public in the world, and used to be a state-owned enterprise, before being privatised and sold to Centrica in the late 1980s.
British Gas have one of the most extensive collections of tariffs for any energy company in the UK. They can differ by location, how often you wish to pay, whether you want just a gas or electricity tariff, and whether you want fixed or variable tariffs.
This can be confusing for customers, but it does mean that there’s a decent chance that there’s a plan that fits your needs.
They do however, offer five basic tariffs for aimed at the average consumer. These are:
The latest data shows that British Gas get their electricity supply from just two sources. 24% of their energy supply comes from nuclear power stations and the other 76% comes from renewable energy sources.
Neither of these sources emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, so the British Gas fuel mix is greener than a lot of their other competitors.
0%
0%
24%
76%
0%
*Wind
Solar
Biomass
Wave and tidal
Hydroelectric
Geothermal
Over the years, British Gas have acquired numerous smaller or failing energy companies and taking on their customers to increase their share within the market:
In 2019, Breeze Energy, a small supplier with 18,000 customers, went bankrupt after being ordered to pay nearly £500,000 in a fine by the energy regulator Ofgem, as they could not prove that they had purchased enough of their energy from renewable sources.
After a competitive application process to determine which company took over their customers, British Gas were appointed by Ofgem as the new owner of the Breeze Energy accounts.
In March 2021, British Gas announced the acquisition of Nabuh Energy. Centrica, the parent company, bought out the Sheffield-based energy supplier, with British Gas taking on the former 36,000 customers of Nabuh.
British Gas are offering the free installation of smart meters in UK homes, as in line with the government’s nation-wide rollout.
If your home is in an area which has been reached by the rollout, just get in contact with the energy provider and they will book an engineer to visit your home and have one installed.
They offer two different types of smart meters to customers, depending on which meter your home currently has:
The review website Trustpilot, has British Gas rated at 3.1 stars, which only gives it a score of ‘Average’. This puts it roughly in the middle of the pack among its competitors in the gas and electricity markets.
Looking into the reviews, it seems that customers are more happy with the customer service that they have received than the value for money, with British Gas tariffs being on the more expensive end of the scale per kWh of energy.
Ratings given are out of ten.
| Value for Money | Customer Service | Complaints Handling | Bill Accuracy | Would Recommend | Overall | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
6.4 | 7 | 6.7 | 7.4 | 73% | 7 |
*Based on a survey of 331 British Gas customers conducted Feb-Mar 2019
British Gas Evolve is the new, renewables-focused offering from British Gas: a fixed price tariff which matches 100% of electricity used with renewables.
British Gas is the largest of the so-called “Big Six” energy companies, along with EDF Energy, E.ON, npower, OVO Energy and ScottishPower. They currently supply around 70 percent of households in the UK, although this grip on the industry has been declining with the rise of other large competitors such as Octopus and Bulb becoming more prominent competitors for consumers.
British Gas also have their own network of plumbers, gas engineers and electricians who offer a boiler maintenance and repair service. This can be accessed by British Gas customers, and may be included in your energy deal, with a number of services available such as annual maintenance visits, repairs, as well as fixes for other issues such as burst pipes or hot water not running in your home.
Even if you are not a customer with British Gas, you can still hire out a British Gas engineer if you need your boiler to be fixed or looked at.
Like most of their other competitors, British Gas charge exit fees if you are on one of their fixed term contracts. This cost is to offer them some protection in case you choose to leave your contract early, while acting as a deterrent. Exit fees for British Gas varies by which tariff that you are subscribed to, but ranges from between £30 and £50 per fuel.
