British Gas owner to cut 4000 jobs by 2020 after ‘weak’ year

The firm lost 9 per cent of its UK customers in 2017

British Gas owner, Centrica, announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs by 2020 following a 17 per cent fall in its operating profit to £1.25bn.

The energy supplier — which has operations in North America, Ireland and the UK— said it was chasing savings of £1.25bn per year by 2020. Some 65 per cent of of the savings will be in operating costs and around £350m will be in the consumer division, which will see “further digitisation”.

Meanwhile, the firm’s British Gas business shed 9 per cent of its UK domestic customers last year.The company’s UK business division also saw profits plunge by 92 per cent in adjusted operating profit for the year to 31 December.

Admitting the company had a “weak” second half to its year, Centrica’s chief executive Iain Conn told the BBC the job losses were in part due to “intense” competition and partly due to customers “moving to digital”.

Conn added: “The combination of political and regulatory intervention in the UK energy market, concerns over the loss of energy customers in the UK and the performance issue in North America have created material uncertainty around Centrica and, although we delivered on our financial targets for the year, this resulted in a very poor shareholder experience.”