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British Gas and E.ON freeze standard energy tariffs for winter

British Gas and E.ON are freezing standard energy tariffs for the winter in a move affecting millions of UK households.

The decision by British Gas, which is the UK's biggest energy supplier, not to raise prices will mean that more than six million customers will see their charges for gas and electricity stay the same until at least March.

E.ON have pledged that its customers on residential standard tariffs will not see prices rise until at least April.

It comes after rival SSE (LSE: SSE.L - news) said last month that it was freezing prices for the same period.

Britain's Big Six energy suppliers have been under pressure to treat loyal customers on standard tariffs fairly.

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A recent report accused them of overcharging households and making six times as much profit as they admitted to - claims rejected by the industry.

It prompted a meeting between Energy Secretary Greg Clark and representatives from the energy firms.

Chancellor Philip Hammond said in his Autumn Statement that the Government would "look carefully" at energy markets to make sure they are fair.

British Gas chief executive Mark Hodges said its price freeze would "help bring some peace of mind to more than six million of our customers".

The supplier has also launched a deal allowing households to fix energy prices for three winters until March 2019.

Wholesale energy prices have been rising, leading to the collapse of smaller provider GB Energy earlier this week.

It had recently hiked tariffs by as much as a third, while other small suppliers have also had to increase prices.

British Gas serves about 11 million homes in Britain, with many of them on the standard variable tariffs affected by the latest announcement but others on fixed-price deals.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in owner Centrica (Frankfurt: A0DK6K - news) fell 1%.