Gas bills to rise

Household energy bills will continue to rise this year as UK gas suppliers try to claw back annual losses of almost £1bn, an industry expert has warned.

Niall Trimble, managing director of energy consulting firm Energy Contract Company, estimated that five leading gas suppliers lost a total of between £500m and £800m in 2005.

He blamed the soaring cost of wholesale gas and said that household energy bills needed to go up even further to compensate for the losses.

Average gas bills have already risen 39 per cent since 2003, with the latest hikes coming in on New Year's Day when Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and npower pushed up prices.

Jobs protest

Defence workers will stage a huge demonstration this week to protest at the threat to jobs by the increasing privatisation of services.

Union leaders warned that thousands of jobs could be lost and millions of pounds of taxpayers' money was being "squandered" by Government policies.

Hundreds of workers from across the UK will stage a protest in central London tomorrow, accompanied by a Scottish pipe band.

Vendors double

The number of people looking to sell their homes through an internet website doubled during the first three weeks of January, a property website said.

Buyitprivately.com said twice as many people had contacted it about putting their property up for sale during the period, compared with the same three weeks of 2005.

Driver sacked

The sacking of a London Underground driver, which sparked an unofficial walkout by his colleagues earlier this month, has been confirmed, Tube bosses announced.

Northern Line services were disrupted two weeks ago because of the wildcat strike which followed the dismissal of Robert Rankin after an incident last year when a signal was passed at danger.

Peace deal

The threat of further strikes by British Gas engineers in a row over pensions ended when a peace deal was accepted.

The GMB said its members at the company voted yesterday by 85 per cent in favour of an agreement to defer closure of the final salary pension scheme to new recruits and to allow more current employees to join. The engineers staged a one-day strike last month.