How did British Gas make almost £1bn in profits?

'Disbelief' from campaigners will be echoed by millions of struggling households, as Andrew Grice explains

- Andrew Grice

British Gas made a record profit of £969m in the first half of the year, after the energy regulator Ofgem raised the energy price cap to compensate suppliers for previously setting it too low.

Britain’s biggest household energy provider, which supplies 7.5 million households, saw its profits rocket to 10 times more than the £98m it made in the same period last year, breaking its previous record of £585m in the first half of 2010.

Centrica, which owns British Gas, chalked up a record interim profit of £2.1bn. It announced it will reward investors by paying an increased dividend of 1.33p per share and buying back a further £450m of its own shares. To try to limit the controversy over that, it will provide £50m more support to help customers struggling with energy bills that for many households are still double what they were a year ago.

What has the regulator done?