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Octopus Energy is now the biggest household energy supplier in the UK. They overtook British Gas in 2024, which is a really big deal because British Gas had been the biggest UK energy supplier for over 200 years (going back to the original British Gas Light Company in 1812). Octopus only started in 2015. They got big really fast by offering good prices, modern tariffs and online-first customer service. Today they serve over 7 million UK homes and about 12.9 million customer accounts when you count all their gas, electricity and EV services.

British Gas is the oldest energy supplier in the UK. The company's history goes all the way back to 1812, when the Gas Light and Coke Company started lighting London's streets. In 1948, after the Second World War, the government took the gas industry into public ownership. In 1986 the Thatcher government sold it back to the public as British Gas plc. In 1997 the company split into two: Centrica (which kept the British Gas brand for selling gas and electricity to homes) and BG plc (the upstream gas exploration business). Today's British Gas has serviced UK homes continuously for over 200 years.

E.ON Next is a UK energy supplier that started in July 2020. It is the UK retail brand of E.ON SE, a huge German energy company based in Essen, Germany. E.ON SE is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world. The "E.ON" name was created in 2000 when two big German energy companies (VEBA and VIAG) merged. E.ON UK has been operating in Britain since 2002, after E.ON bought Powergen (which started as a state-owned UK electricity supplier in 1989 when the electricity market was privatised).

OVO Energy is a UK energy supplier based in Bristol. It was founded in 2009 by Stephen Fitzpatrick, a Northern Irish entrepreneur from Belfast, along with his wife Sophy. The two of them spent five years getting an Ofgem supply licence and saved £350,000 to start the business. Fitzpatrick has said he was frustrated by how unclear and expensive the UK energy market was, so he wanted to build a fairer, simpler alternative. OVO began trading in September 2009 and grew steadily until 2017, when they had around 680,000 customers.

BT is the oldest telecoms company in the UK. Its history goes all the way back to 1846, when the Electric Telegraph Company was set up to run the world's first commercial telegraph network. The UK government took over the network in 1912 through the General Post Office. In 1981, the telecoms part of the Post Office became British Telecom. In 1984, Margaret Thatcher's government privatised the company. Today, BT Group plc is one of the 100 biggest UK listed companies (FTSE 100). Its head office is at One Braham in East London. The current CEO is Allison Kirkby.

Virgin Media O2 is one of the UK's biggest telecoms companies. It was formed on 1 June 2021 when two big providers (Virgin Media and O2) merged. The deal was worth around £31 billion and was the biggest UK telecoms deal ever. Virgin Media O2 is a "joint venture" — a fancy way of saying that TWO companies own it together, in equal shares of 50% each. The two owners are Liberty Global (an American media company controlled by John Malone) and Telefónica (a huge Spanish telecoms company). The CEO is Lutz Schüler. The head office is in Reading, Berkshire.

Sky is one of the UK's biggest media and telecoms companies. The original Sky Television company was started by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in February 1989. In November 1990, Sky Television merged with British Satellite Broadcasting to create British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). BSkyB became famous for satellite TV with the Sky dish, and bought the rights to broadcast all live Premier League football matches. The company changed its name to Sky plc in 2014 after buying Sky Italia and most of Sky Deutschland.

VodafoneThree is the UK's newest telecoms giant. It was created on 31 May 2025 from the merger of two existing big UK mobile networks: Vodafone UK and Three UK. The deal was worth £16.5 billion (about $20.96 billion). The merger took 18 months to get approved by the UK competition watchdog (the Competition and Markets Authority or CMA), because they were worried the merger would mean fewer choices for UK customers. The CMA approved it in December 2024 only after both companies signed legally binding promises about prices and investment. Those promises are explained below and matter a lot for customers.

Thames Water is the biggest water and sewage company in the UK and in fact in the whole of Europe. It serves around 15 million customers across London, the Thames Valley, and the Home Counties. The legal name of the company that holds the water supply licence is Thames Water Utilities Limited (Companies House number 02366661). The head office is at Clearwater Court, Vastern Road in Reading. The company employs about 8,000 staff. The current CEO is Chris Weston, who joined in January 2024.

Severn Trent is the UK's second biggest water and sewage company by customer numbers. It serves around 4.6 million households and businesses. The service area covers "the heart of the UK" — from the Bristol Channel up to the Humber, and from North and mid-Wales across to the East Midlands. Severn Trent Water supplies 2 billion litres of drinking water every day and treats 3.1 billion litres of waste water. The legal name of the main operating company is Severn Trent Water Limited (Companies House number 02366686). The head office is at Severn Trent Centre, 2 St John's Street, Coventry CV1 2LZ.

United Utilities is the UK's biggest LISTED water and sewage company by some measures. It serves around 7 million customers across the North West of England - including Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside. This is the wettest region in England, so water supply is rarely the headline problem. The bigger issues are usually sewage and pollution. The legal name of the main operating company is United Utilities Water Limited (Companies House number 02366678). The head office is at Haweswater House on the Lingley Mere Business Park, Lingley Green Avenue, Great Sankey, Warrington WA5 3LP.

Anglian Water serves the East of England plus Hartlepool. The service area covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and most of Essex. Hartlepool is included even though it is geographically far away in the North East. This makes Anglian Water the LARGEST water company in England and Wales by geographic area. It is also notable for serving the DRIEST region in the UK - the East of England gets less rain than anywhere else in Britain. Anglian Water supplies almost 7 million customers and employs around 5,000 people. The legal name of the main operating company is Anglian Water Services Limited (Companies House number 02366656). The head office is at Lancaster House, Lancaster Way, Ermine Business Park, Huntingdon PE29 6XU.