Considering how the media scrutinises privatised utilities, it was inevitable that early in 2023 the cavalier way that some of Centrica’s (CNA) contractors had been installing prepayment meters under warrant would be pounced upon. The group’s chief executive, Chris O’Shea, resolved this quickly by sacking the contractors and bringing the work in-house, but even so, he had 10 percentage points of his year’s bonus docked because of it.
Despite this, his pay seemed to balloon in 2023. More controversy followed. Centrica’s latest annual report shows that O’Shea received almost double that of the year before – his £8,231,000 was 83 per cent higher, and not far off 10 times his 2021 pay of £875,000. That year, his share awards had failed to pass their performance conditions and he’d waived his annual bonus because of hardships then being suffered by customers. Challenged about the £4,490,000 he’d received in 2022, he made no effort to defend it. “You can’t justify a salary that size,” he said. “It’s a huge amount of money. I am incredibly fortunate.” He stressed that he played no part in determining his own pay. “That’s set by the remuneration committee.”
Centrica is always associated with British Gas, which supplies gas and electricity to homes and small businesses, but it does far more than that. It describes itself as an “integrated energy company operating primarily in the UK and Ireland”. Scott Wheway has been chairing the group since 2020, the same year that O’Shea became chief executive. He credits O’Shea with reshaping and simplifying the businesses, through which Wheway says the group has been turned around. He says that its strong finances and trading activities have made Centrica a unique “lynchpin of stability in a market that for the last few years has been in turmoil”.