The head of energy giant Centrica – which owns British Gas – has netted another bumper pay packet as customer struggle with sky high bills
The boss of British Gas owner Centrica raked in more than £4.7million in pay and perks last year despite a slump in profits.
Chief executive Chris O’Shea’s more than £1million salary was boosted by almost £3.6million in bonus windfalls. The bonanza comes as many British Gas customers are reeling from still sky high energy bills.
And Mr O’Shea’s payouts come in spite of latest results showing Centrica’s underlying profits slumped to £814million last year, down from £1.55billion in 2024.
One reason was a hit to its British Gas arm, with warmer weather costing it £80million as customers turned down their central heating thermostats.
More households also switched to cheaper fixed tariff deals. Profits in the arm of the business supplying households still made £163million – but that was down from £269million in 2024.
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Mr O’Shea’s total pay package stood at £4.73million for 2025, down from £5.08million in 2024, according to the firm’s annual report released along with its full year results.
The hefty bonuses for Centrica’s top boss also come despite a shareholder rebellion at last year’s annual general meeting, when nearly 40% of shareholders voted against the board’s pay plans.
Mr O’Shea has courted controversy with his pay in recent years, having previously admitted there was “no point” trying to justify an £8.2million package in 2023.
The latest report showed he will also see his pay increase by 3% to £1.13million a year from April 1, adding that the wider 22,000-strong workforce will also have average pay rises of 3% to 4%.
His ratio of pay when compared with the average employee salary at Centrica stood at 71:1 last year.
Carol Arrowsmith, chair of Centrica’s boardroom pay setting committee, said it “recognises both the results delivered and the significant strategic milestones achieved during the year.”
In its report, Centrica added: “The committee believes that the adjustments to Chris O’Shea’s remuneration in 2025 aligned with competitive market rates given the size and complexity of Centrica.”
Referring to the results, Mr O’Shea said: “The environment has been challenging, and performance has varied across the business. However, we have remained disciplined, delivering strong operational performance and achieving customer growth across all our retail businesses simultaneously for the first time in over a decade.”
British Gas saw UK and Ireland household customer numbers increase by 1% to 7.96 million over the year, with 7.5 million in the UK, though this was boosted by 91,000 after taking on the customer base of failed suppliers Rebel Energy and Tomato Energy last year. The gains from the two collapsed suppliers “offset a small decrease in underlying customers”, it said.
British Gas was last year overtaken by rival Octopus Energy as the UK’s largest household energy supplier.
It comes as industry experts Cornwall Insight this week forecast a 7% reduction in regulator Ofgem’s energy price cap when the next quarterly change is announced next Wednesday, with a predicted reduction of £117 to £1,641 a year for a typical dual fuel household from April 1.
This follows the announcement in last November’s Budget by Chancellor Rachel Reeves that £150 would be cut from the average household bill from April by scrapping the Energy Company Obligation scheme introduced by the Tories in government.
