British Gas (2023) review: Not the best or the worst

British Gas is the largest energy supplier in Great Britain, supplying 20% of the electricity we use in our homes and 28% of the gas. Though its market share has shrunk over the years it’s gone up slightly in the past couple of years, partly because it took on the customers of Together Energy when it went bust in January 2022. British Gas now has 5 million domestic electricity customers and 5.8 million gas customers.

It was one of the original “Big Six” energy companies that used to supply all of our gas and electricity but as rival suppliers have become more dominant the energy regulator Ofgem has stopped using the term. Instead, it calls them the “large legacy” suppliers and these still have a market share of 71%. Ofgem now groups all “large” suppliers, which have a share of at least 5% for either gas or electricity, together. There are currently six of them.

In 2020, British Gas’s parent company Centrica launched a new online-only brand, British Gas Evolve, which aimed to offer more affordable energy and included 100% renewable electricity as standard. It was scrapped just a year later, however, as the company felt that British Gas was a more trusted name.

In our survey conducted in partnership with YouGov, British Gas had the fourth highest percentage of customers, along with Ovo Energy, who said they would recommend it to a friend in our energy survey at 39%. This is still much lower than the 79% for Octopus Energy – our overall winner in the Expert Reviews Energy Awards 2023 – though. British Gas failed to win in any of our award categories.

British Gas (2023) review: Customer service

Customers gave British Gas a fairly poor rating for its customer service – only 34% of customers were very or fairly satisfied, which was the third lowest proportion of the suppliers in our survey. This compares to an excellent 72% for the most highly rated supplier Octopus Energy.

British Gas (2023) review: Value for money

British Gas was rated similarly poorly for value for money. Less than a third of their customers (28%) said they were very or fairly satisfied, though this was more than for the lowest-rated supplier Shell Energy (27%). 37% of British Gas customers said they were very or fairly dissatisfied.

In contrast, the award winner in this category was Octopus Energy, which had 64% of customers saying they were very or fairly satisfied with its value for money.

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British Gas (2023) review: Clarity and accuracy of bills

British Gas customers were unimpressed with its bills as only 67% of customers said their bills were very or fairly easy to understand. This compares to 84% for the top provider Octopus and 66% for the worst EDF Energy.

Just 36% of British Gas’s bills were always accurate according to its customers, just slightly more than the worst supplier for accuracy, Ovo Energy. In contrast, 52% of Octopus customers said their bills were always accurate.

British Gas (2023) review: Customer contact

It was fairly slow to answer calls from customers as it only managed to answer 25% of them in five minutes or less, compared to 42% for the best supplier Octopus. Only 4% were answered in less than a minute.

The supplier did well at replying to customers contacting it online or by email though, managing to answer 28% of them in four hours or less – the highest percentage among the five suppliers we were able to rate in this category – and 38% of them in one day or less.

British Gas (2023) review: Complaints

According to data from the energy regulator Ofgem, British Gas received 1,588 complaints per 100,000 customer accounts, putting it in fourth place for complaint numbers among the providers in our survey. The one with the fewest, Octopus Energy, received 1,133.

It resolved a mediocre 52% of them by the end of the next working day, although this was still a higher percentage than the 43% achieved by Shell Energy, and 87% were resolved within eight weeks.

Ofgem complaints data

Notes: Data is for the third quarter of 2023

Along with customer satisfaction and complaints, the cost of energy suppliers’ tariffs will also determine whether they’re worth switching to. There are currently very few deals that are likely to save you money compared to your suppliers’ standard variable tariffs, which are subject to the price cap set by Ofgem, and many of the best deals on offer right now are for existing customers only.

To compare costs, you should see what your current suppliers are offering existing customers as well as gathering quotes to find out how much tariffs from different suppliers will cost you based on your energy usage. For more on how to get the best deal, visit our guide to the best energy suppliers.

British Gas (2023) review: Verdict

British Gas provides 100% renewable electricity on some of its tariffs and its parent company Centrica invests in renewable generation, but it isn’t one of the better energy suppliers in our survey. You’ll get improved customer service and value for money elsewhere.

Methodology

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,006 adults of which 443 were British Gas customers. Fieldwork was undertaken between 13th – 16th October 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+). *Figures used, based on calculations by Expert Reviews.