British Gas to cut household gas prices by 5 percent

LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Britain's largest household energy supplier, British Gas, said on Thursday it would lower its domestic gas prices by 5.1 percent next month, following similar price cuts from its rivals earlier this year.

Rivals SSE and E.ON both announced price cuts for domestic gas prices of 5.3 and 5.1 percent respectively, piling on pressure on other suppliers to follow suit. EDF Energy also on Thursday moved to cut its standard gas prices by 5 percent, effective from March 24.

British Gas, which is owned by Centrica (LSE: CNA.L - news) , said the change would come into effect from March 16 on all of its tariffs, which would help reduce around 6.8 million customers' bills by an average of 31 pounds.

It is the third time British Gas has lowered its prices, since the start of last year, which it said would result in an overall reduction of 14 percent.

"Taken together, our three price reductions will bring the average household's annual energy bill down by almost 100 pounds," said Centrica's Mark Hodges, chief executive of its Energy Supply & Services in UK and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) .

"Competitive pricing is the way to retain existing customers and win new business in this hard-fought market." (Reporting by Li-mei Hoang; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)