Centrica to cut 700 jobs amid 'growing challenges'

British Gas owner Centrica plans to cut around 700 management and back office jobs under previously announced reductions, as it faces "growing challenges."

The company said staff had been told about the cuts, which were part of its "ongoing transformation."

Centrica originally announced last year that it would shed 4,000 jobs by 2020 , following a big fall in operating profits.

In February the group said that it was chasing savings of £1.25bn per year by 2020.

Around 65% of the savings would be in operating costs and around £350m within the British Gas consumer division, which would see "further digitisation", the company said at the time,

It disclosed the impending job cuts after seeing a 17% fall in group adjusted operating profits to £1.25bn for 2018.

The company said on Wednesday that the roles potentially affected were "non-customer facing" and the proposals included a reduction in management layers and back office functions.

A Centrica spokesman said: "This difficult decision was made because we need to respond to the growing challenges we face.

"The energy market is going through continued rapid change, competition is fierce, our energy customers are leaving us and we're operating under a price cap.

"Over the next 45 days, as part of a full consultation process, we will discuss the proposals and seek the views of employees and their representatives."

Unions said the job losses were a "terrible blow" for the workforce.

Centrica has fiercely contested the energy price caps that took effect in January, saying that "political intervention" in the market had contributed to its weakened performance.

Between 2016 and 2017, Centrica lost some 10% of its UK home energy customers, going from 14.2 million to 12.8 million.

Centrica shares were down 0.6% in late afternoon trading.