British Gas owner to cut 3000 jobs following huge decline in customers

The first three months of 2016 saw Centrica, the owner of British Gas, lose around 224,000 customers as they switched to other independent household providers.

The UK’s largest energy supplier revealed that the loss of customers equals to 1.5% of its residential accounts.

During this period, Centrica has already cut 800 jobs out of the 3,000 roles it plans to axe by the end of this year.

British Gas and the rest of the ‘Big Six’ energy companies - SSE, Iberdrola’s Scottish Power, RWE’s npower, E.ON and EDF Energy - are losing market shares to independent and cheaper suppliers.

The UK currently has a total of 39 energy suppliers but the ‘Big Six’ still account for 85% of all residential accounts.

Centrica has claimed that the significant loss of customers is due to a high number of accounts coming to the end of their fixed deals and then moving on to other suppliers.

Centrica also said it is expected to deliver £200m of efficiency savings this year, with assistance from lower operating costs, and would spend around £1bn on small acquisitions in 2016.

Iain Conn, Centrica Chief Executive, said: “We continue to make good progress in implementing our strategy, and with improving levels of customer service, good operational performance, lower costs, and the launch of new products to help customers manage their energy usage, we remain on track to deliver against our 2016 targets.”