Two days before SSE hits its 4.4 million customers with an average price increase of 8.2%, the energy giant today set out plans to hand out £251 million to shareholders.
After making a £354 million profit in just six months — which was itself down 11.7% on the same period last year — SSE is giving its investors an above-inflation 3.2% rise in dividends.
The 26p interim payout is more than three times the dividend paid in 2000 when average bills were £710. The latest price hike, which comes into force on Friday, will take average dual fuel bills to £1380.
Head of retail Will Morris dismissed claims that SSE values shareholders more than customers, saying: “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
He pointed out that SSE’s energy supply business fell to a £115.4 million operating loss from a £48.3 million profit last year, and added: “The loss shows that we have not been overcharging our customers. Although we regret having to increase prices, it was unavoidable.”
SSE, which trades in London as Southern Electric, said its “first financial responsibility to its shareholders is to remunerate their investment through the payment of dividends”.
However, it said it would cut customers’ prices if the Government slashed green levies, as did British Gas, whose owner Centrica told the Evening Standard: “If environmental and social levies are taken off the bill, or the programmes are made more cost-efficient, then the benefit will be directly passed on to our customers.”
E.ON’s UK business today posted a £227 million pre-tax profit for the three months to September, up from £194 million a year ago. The company, which is expected to lift prices 6.6%, warned: “It is increasingly likely that we will need to pass on some of these increases in costs to our customers.”
But Co-operative Energy today trimmed the 4.5% price rise it announced last month to 2.5% “in response to the clear indication the Government has given that it will remove green taxes on gas and electricity bills.”
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EDF yesterday said its bills will go up by 3.9% — much less than the double-digit hikes from other members of the Big Six — although it did threatened to “review” its prices if ministers did not cut green levies.
The National Audit Office has warned that households face 17 years of inflation-busting hikes in energy and water bills, with costs rising by more than £700 a year by 2030.
Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King added his voice to criticism of energy firms, saying: “We cannot see why those profits are deserved.”
However, the supermarket’s gas and electricity division, Sainsbury’s Energy, is putting bills up by as much as 10.4%.
