British Gas, owned by Centrica, is putting up its domestic gas and electricity prices from 18 August 2011, at a cost of around £190 more per year for dual fuel customers.

Some nine million households will be affected by the increases, with gas bills rising an average of 18% and electricity bills going up around 16%.

Another series of price rises for heat and power just as households are being burned by food and petrol increases and pressure on their incomes.

BBC news featured British Gas customer Mark Butler whose family are particularly badly affected because they're dependent on benefits while he deals with a back problem. They can't help using gas and electricity, but it's taking a huge share of their income.

Mark Butler said "It's 25% of my household budget and that's the single largest payment we have. Undoubtedly if it's kept unchecked it will push us below the poverty line if we're not already there and the effect it's going to have on us is basically we're going to have to choose either to heat the house or feed ourselves."

The price hike is at the top end of expectations with gas going up by 18% next month. Electricity will be 16% dearer adding £190 a year on average to the bill of a customer who buys both.

British Gas is the biggest supplier so there's a direct impact on 9 million customers. Despite saying last week that it would move reluctantly, the company has decided not to hold back on this major increase.

Ian Peters from British Gas remarked: "Recently we've seen Middle Eastern turmoil and the growth in the Asian economies push up wholesale gas prices by 30% to the point that we've been selling energy at a loss for the last four months and that's unsustainable."

This round of price rises started with Scottish Power last month, now British Gas is pushing up its prices and the fear is that the other big players Scottish and Southern, EDF, npower and E.ON will simply do the same. Consumers are told to shop around, but that's hard if prices are all going in one direction.

Audrey Gallacher from Consumer Focus reacted to the news by saying: "British Gas customers are going to take a hit on this today but there's a real concern that where they go, everybody else will follow so probably nobody is going to be immune to that and that's the sad fact."

The Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said consumers were being buffeted by fuel prices and he refused to stand by and watch this happen. He won't be able to stop British Gas, but he's promised to heat up competition by bringing in more suppliers.