Who Owns British Gas?

British Gas is owned by Centrica plc, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange with no controlling shareholder. It has not been state-owned since privatisation in 1986, and — despite the name and the association — it is a private company like any other energy supplier. Companies House records a short chain from British Gas Trading up to Centrica, where the trail ends in a listed-company exemption. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns the British Gas brand?

The supplier you pay is BRITISH GAS TRADING LIMITED (03078711), incorporated 6 July 1995 and registered at Windsor. Its person with significant control is GB Gas Holdings Limited (03186121), holding 75% or more of shares and votes.

Above that sits Centrica Holdings Limited (05625463), and above that Centrica plc, the listed parent.

The 1995 incorporation date is worth noticing: British Gas Trading is younger than the brand by a long way, because the business was repeatedly restructured after privatisation and the supply arm was put into a new company.

Parent company and ultimate owner

Centrica plc is the ultimate parent and has no owner. As a listed company it is exempt from PSC reporting, so its shareholders are disclosed to the market rather than to Companies House.

Those shareholders are institutions — index managers and pension funds — with no single holder near control. No government, sovereign fund or individual owns British Gas.

The persistent belief that British Gas is somehow still public, or that the government could simply instruct it, is a hangover from its origins. Centrica is subject to the energy price cap and to Ofgem’s rules, which is regulation, not ownership.

Brand owner vs operating company

British Gas is a brand and a set of trading companies within Centrica, not a company in its own right at group level. The register shows the business split across separate entities by function:

• British Gas Trading Limited (03078711) — energy supply
• British Gas Services Limited (03141243) — boiler cover and engineers
• British Gas Insurance Limited (06608316) — the insurance behind HomeCare
• British Gas Social Housing Limited (01026007) — incorporated 1971, and so a survivor of the nationalised era

That matters practically: your energy contract, your boiler cover and your insurance may each be with a different company, all trading as British Gas.

When the ownership changed

The British Gas Corporation was a nationalised industry, formed in 1972 from the area gas boards. It was privatised in 1986 under the “Tell Sid” campaign — one of the defining share sales of the period, and the moment the public stopped owning it.

In 1997 the privatised company demerged. The supply and services business became Centrica, keeping the British Gas brand; the pipelines business became BG plc and later split again, with the transmission network becoming National Grid‘s gas business and the exploration arm, BG Group, eventually bought by Shell in 2016.

So the original British Gas has ended up in three places: Centrica has the customers and the brand, National Grid has the pipes, and Shell absorbed the gas fields. Anyone asking who owns British Gas is usually asking about the first of those.

Related brands in the same group

Centrica owns British Gas, Scottish Gas, Bord Gáis Energy in Ireland, Centrica Business Solutions and the Rough gas storage facility, and holds a stake in the UK’s existing nuclear stations through its historic interest in that fleet.

It does not own the pipes into your home. Gas distribution belongs to regional network companies under separate ownership, and the electricity wires belong to distribution network operators — which is why a supplier switch changes who bills you and nothing physical at all.

Sources and verification

The company numbers, incorporation dates and PSC entries up the chain to Centrica Holdings are from the Companies House register.

Centrica plc’s own shareholders are not there: as a listed company it discloses through FCA major-holdings notifications and its annual report. The privatisation and demerger history is a matter of public record in legislation and company announcements rather than in any current filing. Companies House does not verify most filed information.