British Gas fatcat boss improves £2m house with £100k GAMES ROOM while customers choose between food and heat

Ian Peters, who earned around £1.5m last year, recently suggested price rises were justifiable because energy tariffs are not important

Lap of luxury: Ian Peters' huge property

British Gas fatcat Ian Peters is splashing out £100,000 on a huge games room at his £2million house.
The revelation comes as many of his customers are struggling to even afford to heat their homes.

Mr Peters, who earned around £1.5million in salary and bonus payments last year, sparked fury recently by suggesting that British Gas’s appalling price rises were justifiable because energy tariffs are not particularly important.

When the Mirror approached Mr Peters, he desperately tried to deny the luxury home improvement in the grounds of his sprawling property is a games room.

His spokeswoman insisted it was to accommodate elderly relatives.

But planning documents lodged with the local council confirmed that the fatcat had been given the go-ahead for a single-storey building made up of a games room, office, toilet and double garage.

The spokeswoman for Mr Peters repeatedly said he had not applied to build a games room, adding that the energy boss had amended the planning application.

But when confronted with the planning documents, she said: “It appears the amendment was never official.”
Mr Peters, the managing director of British Gas’s residential energy division, was given permission in 2012 to build the large, detached structure.

Documents show it was due to be made of slate and wood. It is the size of a small home so it will cost a bomb to heat at British Gas prices. The estimated bill for constructing it was almost £100,000. Plans show the L-shaped annexe next to the main house and the big garden.

Plans For A Game Room At The Home Of Ian Peter'S, Managing Director Of British Gas

 
It is not known if it has been put up yet, but aerial photos on the Google Earth website show a large L-shaped building near the home in East Sussex.

A report by planning officers at Lewes district council described Mr Peters’s house as a “large dwelling in a substantial plot of land”. The married, dad-of-three bought the house in 2004 for £865,000.

Three weeks ago British Gas announced that on November 23 it would be raising electricity prices by 10.4% and gas by 8.4%.

The massive rises, which will hit eight million households, mean the average dual fuel tariff will jump £120 to £1,500 a year.

It comes even though British Gas makes around £600million a year in profit.

Mr Peters found himself at the centre of the storm when he tried to justify the ­sky-high price increases.
He bizarrely claimed that bills were not dependent on the price of fuel.

The boss said: “A price rise doesn’t ­necessarily mean energy bills have to go up too. The amount you pay depends not on the price, but on how much gas and electricity you use.”

Two weeks later he represented British Gas when MPs on the Commons Energy select committee grilled the big six energy firms.

Mr Peters brushed off MPs’ criticisms, including that the average British Gas bill shot up 38% in the past five years while the chief executive’s pay rose 36%.

Mirror