Centrica Chief Executive Officer, Chris O’Shea, engaged in an interview with the BBC, addressing topics ranging from his £4.5 million salary to broader industry issues such as standing charges, company profits, and support initiatives for customers.
Chris O’Shea said: “My pay last year was £4.5 million. That’s a salary, that’s a bonus in a long term share scheme.
“It’s a huge amount of money. I am incredibly fortunate. I don’t set my own pay; that’s set by a remuneration committee. And a number, that’s the first bonus that I’ve taken in my time in Centrica. In a number of years, I’ve not been given a bonus because of hardships that customers are facing.
“I thought it was right that we put a lot of our money, a lot of our profits into supporting customers. But it’s, you can’t justify a salary of that size. It’s a huge amount of money to anybody looking at this.”
Mr O’Shea discussed Centrica’s commitment to contributing 10% of British Gas Energy profits to customer support and shared financial insights, including a pre-tax profit of £3.3 billion in the past year.
The CEO acknowledged the need for improvement in customer service and elaborated on Centrica’s stance on prepayment meters, customer debt management and potential differentiated tariffs based on financial capabilities.
Regarding the energy price cap, O’Shea indicated a potential decrease of over £200 for the typical household, anticipating benefits for prepayment customers and those paying upon receiving bills, while acknowledging external challenges such as geopolitical events affecting LNG shipments.
Mr O’Shea said: “If you were to reset the price cap right now, the observation period’s got one more month to go. If you reset it right now, energy prices would come down by just over £200 for the typical household.
“And what you also have to remember is that consumers use two-thirds of their energy in winter and one-third in the summer. So you’ll see not only the reduction in price but you’ll also see a reduction in consumption.
“Just now the weather’s very cold. People have got their heating up, so they’re spending more. But you’ll see a double benefit for prepayment customers and customers that pay when they receive the bill. The problem is there’s one more month to go of the observation period.”
