British Gas has set up a scheme to protect the hundreds of millions of pounds it receives in advance payments from customers towards their future energy bills, after the “national scandal” that left households on the hook to pay £500m after a string of energy firms spent consumers’ deposits before going bust.
The Centrica-owned energy firm has pledged to ringfence the £294m it holds in credit balances through direct debits from its 7 million customers in a bank account separate from funds it uses to run the day-to-day business.
