British Gas, the UK’s largest energy firm, is on course to report profits of £857m over the first six months of trading this year, according to Investec. UBS, however, has predicted a slightly lower figure of £687m.

Centrica, the company’s owner, has already reported that the supplier’s interim profits will significantly exceed the previous record of £585m set in 2010, although it has not yet provided an exact figure. The surge in profits would represent a remarkable increase compared with the £98m earned during the same period in 2022.

Centrica is also expected to sustain its own robust earnings, having recovered from pandemic-driven losses after posting a £135m loss in 2020. 

The company explained this as a result of Ofcom’s increase in the energy price cap, a measure that aimed to compensate suppliers for setting it too low in the past and recognised the rising wholesale market prices caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine...