SSE in price pledge if green levies cut

say it will adjust its prices if the government cuts green levies.

SSE's Alan Young told BBC Radio 5 live that if the levies were cut, "we will adjust our bills accordingly - no ifs, no buts".

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Both Npower and EDF made similar comments on Tuesday

SSE is due to increase its average energy tariffs by 8.2% from 15 November.

The comments came as SSE reported pre-tax profits of £336.4m for the six months to 30 September. Stripping out one-off items, SSE's underlying profits fell to £354m from £400.8m in the same period a year ago.

The company said that its retail business recorded an £89.4m operating loss, and within this its energy supply division made a loss of £115.4m, compared with a profit of £48.3m a year earlier.

SSE said this reflected "the impact of higher wholesale gas, distribution, environmental and social costs".

Mr Young told the BBC: "Profit that we make has a purpose. In the last five years we have invested £2.5bn more in the energy networks and in the power generation in this country than we've made in profit after tax."

In the past few weeks, most of the other big energy companies have also announced price rises, blaming the government's social and environmental policies for some of the increases.

But Energy Secretary Ed Davey has said they should not treat the public as a "cash cow".

However, the government is considering reviewing its policies in the forthcoming Autumn Statement.

Labour has said it would freeze gas and electricity bills for 20 months if it wins the 2015 election.