British Gas have announced profits of £585 million for the first half of the year - a rise of 98%.

Centrica, which owns British Gas, has attributed the rise to the cold winter, as well as the addition of 223,000 new residential customers following the cut in gas bills in February.

There had been an underlying fall in energy use, Centrica said, due to customers becoming more energy-efficient, but this had been offset by the extra demand caused by the cold weather in the winter.

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Centrica reported an overall rise of 65% in first-half profits, up to £1.56 billion.

Price comparison service uSwitch said that the large profits indicated that British Gas could reduce prices further.

However, with three price cuts in the past year, British Gas Chief Executive Sam Laidlaw suggested that this was unlikely, telling BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme: "This is a competitive market, so we can't give any signals, but our position has always been to lead the market down and try to delay any price increases as long as we can."

(KMcA)