The head of the company that owns British Gas, Centrica, received over £4.7 million in salary and benefits last year despite a drop in profits. Chief executive Chris O’Shea’s salary of more than £1 million was supplemented by nearly £3.6 million in bonuses. This comes at a time when many British Gas customers are facing high energy bills.
Despite Centrica’s underlying profits falling to £814 million in 2025 from £1.55 billion in 2024, Mr. O’Shea’s payouts continued. The decline in profits was partly due to British Gas suffering an £80 million loss from warmer weather, leading customers to reduce their heating usage.
Furthermore, more households opted for cheaper fixed tariff deals, resulting in a decrease in profits for the household supply arm from £269 million in 2024 to £163 million. Mr. O’Shea’s total pay package for 2025 was £4.73 million, down from £5.08 million in 2024, as per the company’s annual report.
Despite facing shareholder dissent at the previous annual general meeting, with nearly 40% opposing the board’s pay plans, Mr. O’Shea’s substantial bonuses continued. His pay is set to increase by 3% to £1.13 million annually, with the wider workforce also receiving average pay rises of 3% to 4%.
In 2025, Mr. O’Shea’s pay ratio to the average employee salary at Centrica was 71:1. The chair of Centrica’s boardroom pay setting committee, Carol Arrowsmith, acknowledged the results and strategic achievements during the year.
Mr. O’Shea expressed that the business faced challenges but maintained strong operational performance and achieved customer growth across all retail sectors simultaneously. British Gas reported a 1% increase in UK and Ireland household customers to 7.96 million, with a boost from taking on customers from failed suppliers Rebel Energy and Tomato Energy.
Despite these developments, British Gas was surpassed by Octopus Energy as the UK’s largest household energy supplier. Industry experts predict a 7% reduction in Ofgem’s energy price cap, potentially lowering the average household bill by £117 annually. This follows the announcement by Chancellor Rachel Reeves to reduce household bills by scrapping the Energy Company Obligation scheme.
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