Residential energy services

We are the largest operator in the installation and maintenance of domestic central heating and gas appliances in Britain.

We have been experiencing significant growth in the number of services customer relationships, with 8.5m relationships at the end of 2009, an increase of 400,000 on the previous year. The continued success of our secondary products, Plumbing and Drains Care, Home Electrical Care and Kitchen Appliance Care contributed to much of this growth, and we were able to cross-sell these products to our energy customer base as well as to existing Central Heating Care customers.

In August 2009 we received Financial Services Authority (FSA) approval to offer insurance-based home services products to customers. This is providing us with opportunities to grow our market leading position in the UK home services market, through increased flexibility around a wider range of energy-related services products.

We are the largest single trainer and employer of domestic gas engineers in the UK. In February 2010 we announced that we are building an insulation business, with the creation of 1,100 new ‘green collar’ roles.

The range of new energy technologies British Gas has built up over the last two years, combined with our services engineer base, give us a strong base for growth as the market for new energy products and services expands. British Gas now has investments in biomass heating, through the acquisition of a 19% stake in Econergy Ltd early in 2009, solar, through our Solar Technologies business, fuel cell boilers through our 10% minority equity stake and development and distribution agreement with Ceres Power Holdings plc.