Centrica boss infuriates consumers by accepting generous paypacket and a bonus

CHRIS O’SHEA’S £4.5 million (€5.08 million) take-home pay and £3.7 million (€4.18 million) bonus was greeted with outrage in the UK.

O’Shea is CEO of British Gas’s parent company Centrica and angry consumer groups told him to “examine his conscience” as millions of UK households struggled to pay for heating.

The CEO’s rewards were five times higher than the previous year although that time the Centrica boss waived his bonus owing to high energy bills.

The company announced record profits not long after the Times newspaper revealed that debt agents working for British Gas had been breaking into the homes of vulnerable customers to fit prepayment meters when they were unable to pay their bills.

These disclosures produced protests from consumer groups who had been campaigning for at-risk families to receive more support to help them withstand the cost of living crisis.

Downing Street also prompted energy regulator Ofgem to open an investigation into British Gas’s treatment of struggling households.

Centrica’s remuneration committee failed to make any mention in its annual report of the British Gas prepayment scandal.  On the contrary, it  defended O’Shea’s annual bonus, maintaining that he had delivered on his objectives of developing an “energy transition” plan.

O’Shea had “successfully navigated challenging regulatory and political issues”, the committee said, at the same time “delivering shareholder value through new investment opportunities and portfolio-shaping.”

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