British Gas PriceAnnouncement

Centrica PLC
10 December 2001


        10 December, 2001


        British Gas Pricing Announcement

Centrica plc today announced that its British Gas business is to increase its
domestic gas prices by 5.3 per cent from 3rd January 2002. The increase will
add 32 pence per week to the average domestic gas bill.

British Gas's year on year gas costs have increased by 22 per cent in a
marketplace where wholesale costs have almost doubled in the last 18 months,
and the decision to raise prices has been taken against this background of
continuing high gas costs facing the industry.

Mike Alexander, Managing Director of British Gas Trading, said: 'We've held
off as long as possible and absorbed a significant element of the increased
cost to keep the price rise low. Indeed when high gas costs led to a rise in
domestic gas prices across the industry earlier this year, our increase was
amongst the lowest.

'We've also worked hard to help reduce the impact by introducing new services
such as a capped electricity contract, energy efficiency measures and support
for our more vulnerable customers.'

Prices for British Gas's 5.5million electricity customers, which fell by 3.7
per cent in April this year, remain unchanged.


Enquiries:

Centrica Media Relations:          01753 494085

Centrica Investor Relations:      01753 494900

Notes to editors:

 1. Based on averaging the 12 monthly IPE Gas Index prices to December 2001,
    the wholesale gas price in 2001, was 22.29 p/therm. This compares with
    11.8 p/therm for the 12 months to June 2000.
 2. British Gas' UK external WACOG (weighted average cost of gas) for the first
    half of 2001 was 19.1 p/therm. This is up from 15.6 p/therm on the same
    period last year which is an increase of 22%. External gas costs in the
    supply year starting October 2001 have increased approximately 10% over
    the previous year.
 3. British Gas has recently introduced a range of new services to help keep
    energy bills low :

  * A new electricity price offer that caps prices until January 2004
    protecting customers from any increase in electricity costs, and promising
    cuts if electricity prices fall.

  * For people who claim social security benefits, a special service is also
    available offering a capped electricity contract, cashback, free energy
    efficiency measures and a benefits health check. To date, customers helped
    by the benefits health check have seen an average extra £1000 a year in
    their pockets.

  * £100m energy efficiency investment programme over the next two years to
    cut energy bills for more than one million householders.



Annual British Gas gas bills at average consumption (19,050kWh), (12,300kWh
for prepayment). All bills include VAT at 5%.

                               Pre Price Change          Post Price Change

Late or Cash/Cheque
                                     £331                       £347
Prompt Pay
                                     £300                       £317
Direct Debit
                                     £297                       £314
Prepay
                                     £232                       £243