British Gas to axe another 800 jobs as part of major overhaul

BRITISH Gas owner Centrica has revealed it plans to axe another 800 jobs. The energy giant has already announced 500 job cuts last month as part of efforts to overhaul its customer services and support teams. It said it would cut jobs across its Services and Energy call centre teams in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Leicester, Stockport and Leeds. Staff were told at the time the changes were needed to meet the “evolving needs of customers”. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! It said average contact per customer has fallen by 20% year-on-year, while around 90% of its customers are using digital services. In its financial results today, Centrica said it planned to cut 800 Group Support roles. That means 1,300 roles are being cut in total across the company. The firm said it wanted to “focus on driving efficiencies” and it was responding to “structural changes in customer behaviour”. Centrica has been restructuring its business as it continues to heavily invest in nuclear energy projects including the Sizewell C nuclear power plant. The company reported an 18% drop in adjusted core profit for the six months to the end of June. Most read in Money It partially blamed production outages, as well as unfavourable weather and weak market conditions. Chief executive Chris O’Shea said: “Volatility across energy markets has created challenges in some parts of our business, and some of our delivery has been slower than we would like. “However, we have continued to invest with discipline to strengthen our portfolio and support long-term growth, making progress pivoting the group towards more stable and predictable earnings.” Comment now