Why so much angst? If the price of wholesale energy rises, pretty-much all of that increase has to be passed on to the consumer. Sure it's hard, but that's life. And get used to it folks, there are probably many more increases to come.

Jim McLaughlin, Calgary, Canada

Operating profits?

£100 to £200 million loss on what profit figure?

Last Year they made £571 million profit....

So this year are they just going to clear £371 million- profit?

In 2006 they made £95 million only- so now it's bad if they only get nearly four times that?

This sucks.

Jez W, Leeds,

"We never suffered price rises when we used coal gas". Quite sure about that, it is remarkable how we have all airbrushed the 1970's from history, we remember the flares, the sit-coms and the music
but our nostalgia never extends to the power cuts and rampant inflation. Google STAGFLATION.

Mark, Epping, Essex

CPI measures the acceleration of price in a fixed basket of goods and services. The UK "Core" CPI excludes volatile prices like fresh food and energy, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, taxes and housing costs. For this reason it is often preferred as a measure of inflation by the government

Hazelj, london, england

Another of the power companies raised thei rprices last week, I expect to see the rest raise their prices within the next few weeks. This stops people changing suppliers, as by the time you've changed all prices have gone up. Competition?

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

The thing is we are all slaves!
Slaves we are because we are obliged to use these big firms. What about developping our own forms of energy and make these big companies become little shops?
Regards.

Giancarlo, London, England

This is simply outrageous! If the governement are keen to grab back some favour with the electorate they should step in and stop this from happening. Similarly so should OffGas. Centrica simply need to become a more efficiently run company.

Sid, London,

Why don't we return back to coal gas commonly know as town gas
We never suffered huge price rises when using this gas
we have the coal mines and many other countries around the world are turning back to coal
We would not have to rely on unstable countries like russia for our gas

spence fleetwood, Irby, uk

The CPI is only 2.5%.Does this include gas or it that excluded along with most other essentials.

stephen hulton, eure, france

Many older people will sadly die as a result of this action, which will realistically mean a 30% increase on their current gas bill.

Shame on us all !

Richard, London,