The outlook for cuts in household energy bills will be back in the spotlight this week when British Gas owner Centrica posts annual results.

The new boss of British Gas owner Centrica is expected to unveil a fall of more than a quarter in earnings from residential energy supply, impacted by warmer weather, when it posts full-year results on Thursday.

Iain Conn, a former BP executive, is forecast to report profits down 27% to £425 million from the division as customers used less energy than a year ago. Last month Mr Conn replaced former chief executive Sam Laidlaw who had been at the helm for eight years.

Across the group, operating profit is expected to plunge 29% to £1.9 billion, according to City estimates.

In November the company said warmer temperatures compared to 2013 meant average residential gas consumption for the first 10 months of the year was 21% lower, with electricity down 7%.

It also said it had been losing customers, with the total exodus for the year to date at 250,000. Industry figures had shown record switching to smaller suppliers.

Since then British Gas, along with other Big Six suppliers that dominate the domestic energy market, has come under pressure to cut household tariffs to pass on the cost of falling wholesale gas prices.

It said last month that it would reduce them by 5% from February 27, cutting the typical household's annual energy bill by £37. All the Big Six suppliers have now cut prices but there has been criticism that the reductions are too small.

Recent figures from Ofgem suggest energy companies are projected to increase profit margins per household to £114 over the next year, even after the tariff cuts - a £9 increase on a previous estimate published in November.

Industry experts believe energy firms may be reluctant to make deeper price cuts for fear they will be locked into them if Labour wins the election and caps tariffs.

Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said: "A Labour price freeze from these lower levels could prevent margin recovery, and in any case the risks are likely to be kept live by the manifesto debate during the coming months."

The broker added that these headwinds may force the board to announce a 15% dividend cut for investors for the new financial year.

The sector is also in the midst of an in-depth investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority which could result in bigger players such as Centrica being broken up.

Pensions giant Standard Life is expected to post strong full-year profits on Friday in a further sign that it is well placed to shrug off the impact of the Chancellor's radical pension reforms which come into effect in April.

JP Morgan Cazenove expects the Edinburgh-based company to report an earnings jump of 22% to £570 million, driven by asset management growth offsetting the Government's changes to the annuity market.

In the March Budget, George Osborne gave retired people the freedom over how to spend their pension pots and remove any obligation to buy an annuity, which gives an income for life. These changes come into effect in April.

However, Panmure Gordon expects the firm run by chief executive David Nish to suffer only a £25 million impact as it operates a number of other streams of business.

In September Standard Life, which holds £254 billion under management, said it would sell its Canadian business for £2.2 billion to Toronto-based rival Manulife Financial as it focuses on other market-leading businesses.

It said it would return £1.75 billion of this cash to shareholders, adding that it has returned £3.5 billion to investors since 2010.

Its UK business continues to book workers into auto-enrolment company pension schemes and last August said it looked after 1.5 million customers, adding it expects to add more than 300,000 during the course of this year.

Last week it entered the UK financial advice business by buying British wealth management firm Pearson Jones from Skipton Building Society for an undisclosed sum.

Standard Life said: "Freedom and choice in pensions and the rise of defined contribution arrangements have replaced certainty with flexibility, creating a generation of individuals that will see advice as an essential service. This means demand for advice is likely to significantly exceed supply."

The firm, which employs about 5,000 people in Scotland out of a total headcount of 8,500, had made plans to transfer parts of its pensions and longer term savings business to England if Scotland voted in favour of independence.

But on the day after the No vote last September it said: "We fully respect the decision of the Scottish people."

Go-Ahead half year results are expected to give the transport group a boost as it gears up for two important rail franchise bids later this year.

The group, which runs over 4,600 buses, is the only transport firm in the running for both the Northern and the TransPennine Express franchises.

The Northern rail contract, covering the North West, Yorkshire and Humber, and the TransPennine Express franchise, spanning the North West, Yorkshire and into Scotland, will both be awarded in October. These two commuter and rural routes carried a combined 110 million passengers last year.

Last year the group's Govia rail joint venture won the expanded Thameslink Southern and Great Northern contract, which is Britain's largest franchise. Go-Ahead owns 65% of the Govia joint venture, with the rest owned by French transport group Keolis.

HSBC said: "The Thameslink win should stand Go-Ahead in good stead on the next two franchises that are up for negotiation - the overlapping Northern and TransPennine Express - where it is the only operator shortlisted for both."

Its Govia joint venture already has a strong presence in London and the Midlands with its Southern, Southeastern and London Midland franchises.

Local authorities are cutting back on regional bus subsidies but because most of Go-Ahead's operations are in London brokers say it will not face the same pressures.

Analysts at HSBC said the group is on track to meet its target for profits of £100 million from its bus unit by 2016. In September Go-Ahead posted a full-year bus operating profit of £83.5 million.

HSBC added: "We think that Go-Ahead's exposure to London, where the greatest strides have been made to reduce the dependence on subsidy, should leave Go-Ahead relatively well insulated."

The City expects Go-Ahead to post full-year operating profits up 11% to £114.6 million, on improved earnings from its rail division.