BRITISH Gas owner Centrica has revealed £571m profits from its residential energy division for 2013 after increasing gas and electricity prices.

The figure marks a six per cent drop on £606m profits in the previous year.

Centrica says British Gas shed two per cent of residential customer accounts in 2013 to 15.3 million.

That came as households switched to rival suppliers after Centrica increased tariffs by 9.2 per cent on average from November.

It added another 100,000 had quit the group so far this year, but said customer switching was stabilising after it scaled back its price rise by 3.2 per cent following changes to the Government's green levies on bills.

Across the group, operating profits were two per cent lower at £2.7bn last year.