Families face shock 20% rise in heating bills as gas giants cash in on Big Freeze

The Daily Mail reports:

Families face record winter gas bills averaging £360 as power companies reap a huge windfall from the big freeze.
The 'big six' energy suppliers have refused to pass on a steep fall in wholesale prices to customers.
They are collecting a profit bonanza of £846million in a single month by charging over the odds to keep homes warm.
Householders have had no choice but to turn up the heat to cope with the coldest spell in 30 years, with snow and ice blanketing the entire country.
Domestic demand for gas over the last month is predicted to be 60 per cent higher than in a normal winter.
This increased consumption will result in average bills of £360 for the three-month period from November through to the end of January, compared with £300 a year ago.
Greedy suppliers decided to reduce the tariff to customers by less than 10 per cent - even though the wholesale price of gas came down by some 60 per cent between 2008 and 2009.

Britain's privatised energy firms rip-off the public in the cold snap

From The Daily Express

GREEDY energy firms will be the biggest winners of the cold snap, claim analysts.
They say the owners of British Gas will rake in an extra £1.5million every day of the January freeze.
All the major suppliers who refused to cut customer bills before the winter are now enjoying a profits boom as families turn up the central heating to beat the cold.
Gas and electricity bills will rocket by an average £47 per home this month to a record January high of £203.
An estimated 30 per cent surge in the nation’s energy use will line suppliers’ pockets, with Centrica, parent company of leading seller British Gas, set to be the biggest winner.
Richard Hall, of Consumer Focus, wants a Competition Commission investigation.
He said: “Suppliers have failed to fully pass on wholesale price cuts.”