Parent company Centrica has announced British Gas profits have risen by 24% to a record £742m

Centrica’s operating profit rose 29% to £2.3bn, whilst Britain’s largest energy supplier made £742m last year.

In 2010, British Gas added 267,000 customers to a grand total of 16m accounts.

In what is becoming a familiar scenario, there are renewed calls for the Competition Commission to investigate as the profit announcement comes just months after the suppler raised its gas and electricity prices.

Centrica last year announced that for the 1st half of 2010 British Gas’s profit was 98%.

That figure dropped to 24%, due to British Gas lowering their prices and a rise in wholesale costs in the 2nd half of the year. Centrica’s £2.3bn purchase of a 20% stake in British Energy in 2009 was accounted for in the 2010 figures.

British Gas have defended their profit margins, stating they only make £4 profit per customer per month, and also pointing out that they will pay around £760m in tax this year.