The short version
British Gas is the most recognisable name in UK energy, and by raw customer numbers, still the biggest. If you're already with them and haven't thought about switching in a few years, you're probably on a standard variable tariff priced at the Ofgem cap - paying the maximum allowed rate while the company earns a modest but real margin on every unit you use.
The customer service picture has genuinely improved. Complaints fell by more than 20% across 2025, Trustpilot sits at 4.4 stars, and Uswitch gave them Best Overall Improvement for the second consecutive year. That's meaningful progress from a supplier that was, not long ago, attracting more complaints than almost any other large provider.
But British Gas remains a supplier of two distinct reputations: the engineers who service your boiler are consistently praised; the billing and account systems that have historically let people down are still the source of most negative reviews. And the legacy of what happened in early 2023 - when an undercover reporter exposed debt collectors entering vulnerable customers' homes to force-fit prepayment meters - is not easily forgotten.
This review covers: Who owns British Gas, their history, current tariffs, customer service performance, the 2023 PPM scandal, Hive and services, and how they compare to the market in 2026. We don't accept money from suppliers to influence editorial coverage.
Who is British Gas, really?
British Gas is a trading name, not a standalone company. It is the consumer-facing brand of Centrica plc, a FTSE 100 company listed on the London Stock Exchange, owned by institutional shareholders including BlackRock, Vanguard, and Norges Bank. When Centrica posts record profits - as it did in 2022 - that money goes to those shareholders. British Gas the brand is the retail engine that generates a large share of those earnings.
Centrica also owns Bord Gáis Energy in Ireland, Dyno (plumbing services), the Hive smart home brand, a 15% stake in the Sizewell C nuclear power station acquired in 2025 for £1.3bn, and the Grain LNG import terminal on the Thames, acquired for £1.5bn in the same year. British Gas is therefore one part of a much larger energy infrastructure and services business. When you pay your British Gas bill, you are indirectly funding a company with ambitions that extend well beyond your boiler.
From gas lamps to smart meters: a very brief history
1812The Gas Light and Coke Company
Founded in London by Frederick Winzer, incorporated by royal charter under King George III. The world's first public utility company, created to light London's streets with gas lamps. What would become British Gas starts here, 214 years before this article was written.
1949Nationalisation
The post-war Labour government nationalises the gas industry under the Gas Act 1948. Regional gas boards are merged under state control - energy as a public utility, run for the nation rather than shareholders.
1973British Gas Corporation
The regional gas boards are consolidated into a single national British Gas Corporation, creating the monolithic monopoly that older customers will remember: one supplier, one service, no alternative.
1986"Tell Sid" - privatisation
Margaret Thatcher's Gas Act 1986 privatises British Gas plc in one of the largest stock market flotations in UK history, raising approximately £9 billion. The "If you see Sid... tell him!" advertising campaign - with a spend of £32 million - reaches 98% of UK adults and encourages millions to buy shares for the first time. British Gas becomes a privately owned monopoly, regulated by the newly created Ofgas.
1997Demerger - Centrica is born
British Gas plc splits into three entities. Centrica takes the retail supply and UK production businesses, retaining the British Gas brand. BG Group takes the international exploration and production assets (acquired by Shell in 2016). Transco takes the gas pipe network (now National Gas Transmission). The brand customers know becomes legally distinct from the infrastructure it once ran.
2000–2020Market opens, customers leave
Full retail competition opens in 2000. British Gas spends the next two decades losing customers to cheaper challengers, diversifying into home services, and watching its near-monopoly gradually erode. At its peak the company supplied nearly all UK homes; by 2020 it had fallen to around a third of the market.
2022–23Record profits, then the PPM scandal
Centrica's 2022 profits triple to £3.3 billion as wholesale gas prices surge. In February 2023, The Times publishes an undercover investigation revealing that British Gas contractors were breaking into the homes of vulnerable customers - including those with young children and severe disabilities - to force-fit prepayment meters. Ofgem launches an urgent investigation. British Gas suspends the practice and apologises. The episode becomes the defining reputational event of the modern era for the company.
2024Overtaken in electricity
Octopus Energy surpasses British Gas as the UK's largest electricity supplier - a milestone that would have seemed almost unthinkable a decade earlier when Octopus had not yet existed. British Gas retains its position as the UK's largest gas supplier, though its market share in gas has also declined significantly from near-monopoly levels.
2025Strategic investment and recovery
Centrica acquires a 15% stake in Sizewell C nuclear power station for £1.3 billion and the Grain LNG terminal for £1.5 billion. Full-year group profits fall 39% to £814 million on milder weather and customers switching to fixed tariffs. Household supply profits drop to £163 million. Complaints fall more than 20% for the year. Uswitch names British Gas Best Overall Improvement for the second year running.
The 2023 prepayment meter scandal
No honest review of British Gas in 2026 can skip this. In February 2023, The Times published a report based on undercover footage from a journalist who had worked with Arvato Financial Solutions, the debt collection contractor British Gas used to pursue customers in arrears. The footage showed warrant officers entering homes - using court warrants that gave them legal authority to gain entry - and installing prepayment meters without checking whether the household included vulnerable people, young children, or those dependent on powered medical equipment.
The cases documented included a single father with three young children, a mother with a four-week-old baby, and households with serious health conditions. In some instances, officers proceeded with installations despite visible signs of vulnerability, contrary to British Gas's own stated policies. The undercover investigation found 13 confirmed cases where vulnerability assessments were not properly conducted; a further 13 where records were insufficient to determine compliance.
What Ofgem found: British Gas - along with Scottish Power and OVO Energy - was responsible for 70% of all forced meter installations under warrant in the period examined. Ofgem launched a separate investigation into British Gas specifically and initiated a market-wide review of all suppliers. British Gas immediately suspended the practice and terminated its contract with Arvato. CEO Chris O'Shea apologised publicly. The company brought warrant installations in-house, introduced mandatory body cameras, and committed to a voluntary code of practice that Ofgem subsequently made mandatory for all suppliers in November 2023.
British Gas's internal investigation found no "systemic" failures - a conclusion Ofgem treated with some scepticism given the scale of what the journalism had revealed. The episode did, however, lead to genuinely improved industry-wide protections: mandatory welfare visits before any forced installation, a minimum of 10 contact attempts, a blanket ban on involuntary installations for the most vulnerable households, and body camera requirements. Those protections exist because of what happened at British Gas.
For households considering British Gas in 2026, this history matters in one specific way: it revealed what can happen inside a large supplier under commercial pressure to recover debt. The structural incentive - reduce bad debt, improve margins - hadn't changed; what changed was the oversight applied to the people executing on that incentive. Whether the culture has genuinely shifted is something only time and continued scrutiny will reveal.
The profit question
British Gas and Centrica's 2022 profits - £3.3 billion at the group level - became totemic during the cost of living crisis. Politicians, campaign groups, and the media held them up as evidence of a broken market: households rationing heat while the country's biggest energy supplier reported its best year in decades.
The picture is more complicated than the headlines suggested, but not in a way that entirely excuses it. Centrica's profits came primarily from its upstream generation and trading operations - which benefited from the same gas price surge that was destroying household budgets - rather than from retail supply margins, which Ofgem's price cap constrains. The analogy is a petrol company making money from the refinery during a fuel crisis: technically separate from what you pay at the pump, but hard to defend to someone who can't afford to fill their tank.
The household supply business - British Gas serving domestic customers - made an adjusted operating profit of £163 million in 2025, down 39% on 2024. At roughly 10 million customers, that is around £16 per customer per year in supply profit. By Ofgem's own modelling, an EBIT allowance of roughly £44 per customer per year is built into the price cap calculation. British Gas's actual supply margin is therefore below the regulatory allowance - which is not the picture conveyed by coverage of Centrica's group-level results.
adjusted operating profit, 2025
driven by warm weather and fixed tariff switching
profit - below Ofgem's £44 cap allowance
Tariffs: what British Gas actually offers
British Gas offers a standard variable tariff (SVT) priced at the Ofgem cap, fixed-rate options at various terms, and a growing range of specialist tariffs for EV owners, heat pump households, and solar customers. All tariffs require a smart meter for the time-of-use options; fixed tariffs carry a £75 per fuel exit fee.
| Tariff | Type | Key rate / feature | Exit fee | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard variable (SVT) | Variable | Tracks Ofgem cap: 24.67p/kWh elec, 5.74p/kWh gas (Q2 2026) | None | Maximum flexibility; no commitment |
| Cap Tracker | Variable | Moves with cap each quarter; typically fractionally below SVT | Lower than fixed | Cap followers who want a small saving with flexibility |
| Simply Fixed | Fixed | Locked unit rates; varies by region and term (1–2 yr options) | £75/fuel | Price certainty; protection against cap rises |
| EV Power | EV | 9p/kWh midnight–5am; whole home at off-peak rate; PeakSave Sundays | Standard | EV drivers; any car or charger model |
| EV Power+ | EV | 7.9p/kWh with Hive EV Charger; PeakSave Sundays included | Standard | Hive charger owners wanting best overnight rate |
| Heat Power | Heat pump | Half-price electricity noon–4pm and midnight–7am daily | None | ASHP households; 10 off-peak hours per day |
| PeakSave Sundays | Add-on | 50% off electricity 11am–4pm Sundays for smart meter customers | N/A | Flexible households; add-on to EV tariffs |
The EV Power rate of 9p/kWh is competitive but not the cheapest available - EDF GoElectric offers 6.99p/kWh and their Pod Point partnerships reach 6.49p/kWh, while Octopus Intelligent Go sits at 8p/kWh. British Gas's advantage is that EV Power works with any EV or charger without requiring a specific app or smart charging setup, which matters for drivers whose vehicles are not on Octopus's compatibility list.
The fixed tariff picture shifts regularly and regional variation is meaningful. If you are considering British Gas on a fixed deal, it is worth comparing directly against the Ofgem cap at the point of switching - fixed tariffs sometimes look attractive when the cap is rising and less so when it is falling.
Hive: the smart home ecosystem
Hive is Centrica's smart home brand - thermostats, radiator valves, smart plugs, cameras, EV chargers, and lighting - and it is one of British Gas's more genuinely differentiated assets. The Hive Active Heating thermostat allows remote temperature control via smartphone, and the wider ecosystem integrates with Alexa and Google Home.
Hive products are available to non-British Gas customers, but the integration works most seamlessly when your energy supply and smart home are both under the Centrica umbrella. The Hive EV Charger, for example, qualifies you for the EV Power+ rate at 7.9p/kWh - a meaningful saving over the standard 9p/kWh rate. For households with Hive thermostats already installed, switching away from British Gas does not require removing the hardware, but some features are more convenient when your supplier can also see your half-hourly consumption data.
British Gas Home Services
This is where British Gas has the clearest competitive advantage. With over 6,000 engineers across the UK, annual boiler services, and 24/7 emergency cover, HomeCare is one of the most established home services products in the market. If your boiler breaks at midnight, British Gas has the engineering network to respond in a way that many newer suppliers simply cannot match.
Customer reviews split sharply along the energy supply / home services line. Engineers themselves are consistently praised: punctual, knowledgeable, and tidy. The billing and account management side - where the legacy IT systems historically lived - generates most of the criticism. The Kraken platform migration, which Octopus and EDF have both adopted to significant effect, has not been British Gas's path; Centrica has been building and migrating to its own updated systems, which caused some disruption in 2025 (several Trustpilot reviews note inability to access statements from September 2025 onwards during the transition).
Customer service: the honest assessment
Citizens Advice Q4 2025: British Gas ranked 14th out of 16 suppliers in the Citizens Advice supplier scorecard - consistent with previous quarters. The scorecard measures complaints per 100,000 customers, call waiting times, billing accuracy, and support for vulnerable customers. British Gas scores particularly poorly on billing and metering (1.4/5 in prior reporting periods) and complaints resolution (1.0/5). These are the areas customers most commonly cite in negative reviews.
The Trustpilot score of 4.4 stars from over 333,000 reviews tells a different story - and the divergence between the two measures is worth understanding. Trustpilot reviews are self-selected: customers who had a great engineer experience are motivated to leave a review; those with billing problems often simply stop engaging. Citizens Advice data draws on complaints volumes across the whole customer base, weighted for size. Neither is complete on its own.
What is clear is that British Gas received 596,931 complaints across 2025 - down 20.75% on 2024, which is genuine and meaningful improvement. In Q4 2025 alone, that was 146,341 complaints. For a supplier with around 10 million customers, the complaint rate is roughly 6 per 100 customers per year - much higher than best-in-class suppliers like Octopus or Ecotricity, but lower than it has historically been.
Where British Gas does well: Home services and engineering. Complaint handling (highly commended by Expert Reviews 2025). Uswitch Best Overall Improvement 2024 and 2025. The dedicated vulnerable customer line. The British Gas Energy Trust, which provides grants to customers in debt regardless of their supplier.
Pros and cons
What works
- UK's largest engineering network - 6,000+ engineers, 24/7 emergency cover
- Hive smart home ecosystem well integrated with supply
- EV Power works with any car or charger - no app dependency
- PeakSave Sundays adds genuine value for flexible households
- Complaints fell 20%+ in 2025 - genuine direction of travel
- British Gas Energy Trust helps customers in debt (open to all)
- Sizewell C investment signals long-term commitment to UK energy
- Heat Power tariff competitive with 10 off-peak hours daily
What doesn't
- 596,931 complaints in 2025 - volume still very high vs best suppliers
- 14th out of 16 on Citizens Advice scorecard (Q4 2025)
- Billing system migration caused disruption in 2025
- £75 per fuel exit fee on fixed tariffs - higher than many competitors
- EV overnight rate (9p) undercut by EDF (6.99p) and Octopus (8p)
- 2023 PPM scandal - structural culture questions remain unanswered
- Only ~20% renewable in standard fuel mix
- Website and app rated below average for usability vs competitors
Should you switch to - or away from - British Gas?
If you are an existing British Gas customer on SVT, the first question is not "is British Gas good?" but "am I on the right tariff?". At the Q2 2026 price cap of £1,641, SVT customers are paying the maximum allowable rate. British Gas's own fixed products may offer savings - and fixed tariffs from other suppliers may offer more. The brand you are with matters less than the tariff you are on.
If you are considering switching to British Gas from another supplier, the strongest case is if you want the HomeCare home services product, are a Hive ecosystem user, or have an EV without a compatible smart charger for Octopus Intelligent Go. For those priorities, British Gas is a rational choice. For pure price or for a digitally-first, app-led experience, the case is harder to make.
The improvement trajectory is real and worth acknowledging. A supplier that receives 600,000 fewer complaints per year than it did two years ago is genuinely changing. Whether that trajectory continues past 2026 - as new billing systems bed in and the market continues to intensify - is the open question.
One thing worth knowing: British Gas trades as Scottish Gas in Scotland. The tariffs, customer service, and underlying company are the same - but if you are a Scottish customer you will see the Scottish Gas branding on correspondence and their website.
Frequently asked questions
Is British Gas any good in 2026?
It depends what you need it for. Complaints fell over 20% in 2025 and Uswitch named them Best Overall Improvement for the second year running, which is genuine progress. But they still rank 14th out of 16 suppliers on the Citizens Advice scorecard. Their strongest proposition is HomeCare engineering and the Hive ecosystem - not price or digital experience.
Should I switch away from British Gas?
If you are on SVT, start by comparing tariffs rather than suppliers - a British Gas fixed deal or a competitor's fixed rate may both save you money. If you have HomeCare, Hive equipment, or an EV that does not work with Octopus Intelligent Go, there is a case for staying. For pure price or a digital-first experience, Octopus Energy and E.ON Next consistently score higher across every independent measure.
What tariffs does British Gas offer?
A standard variable tariff at the Ofgem cap, fixed-rate options (Simply Fixed, Cap Tracker), and specialist time-of-use tariffs: EV Power (9p/kWh overnight), EV Power+ (7.9p/kWh with a Hive charger), Heat Power (half-price electricity 10 hours per day for heat pumps), and PeakSave Sundays (50% off 11am-4pm). Fixed tariffs carry a £75 per fuel exit fee.
What was the British Gas PPM scandal?
In February 2023, The Times published undercover footage showing British Gas contractors forcibly installing prepayment meters in the homes of vulnerable customers - including those with young children and serious health conditions - without proper welfare checks. Ofgem launched an urgent investigation. British Gas suspended the practice, terminated its contractor, and introduced body cameras. The episode led to mandatory industry-wide protections for all suppliers.
What is the difference between British Gas and Scottish Gas?
Scottish Gas is the trading name British Gas uses in Scotland. The tariffs, customer service, and parent company (Centrica) are identical - only the branding differs.
For more context on how British Gas compares to the wider market, see our energy supplier complaints league table and our analysis of what energy suppliers actually earn from your bills. The April 2026 price cap explainer covers the current unit rates all suppliers - including British Gas - are using this quarter.