WINDSOR based British Gas owner Centrica has announced 2,100 job losses across the country.

But the company was unable to confirm yesterday (Thursday) if any of those would be at the Centrica headquarters in Maidenhead Road, Windsor or the British Gas office in the Causeway at Egham.

Centrica has blamed political intervention and the loss of energy customers in the UK for helping push annual profits down 17 per cent.

Group chief executive Iain Conn said: “The combination of political and regulatory intervention in the UK energy market, concerns over the loss of energy customers in the UK and the performance issue in North America have created material uncertainty around Centrica.”

The total number of customer accounts at its UK home division slumped 6 per cent to around 20.3 million, while its UK business unit saw a nine per cent drop to 653,000. Energy firms like Centrica have been facing pressure over the way they treat customers, with controversy over pricing and the use of standard variable tariffs (SVTs) which have been deemed poor value for consumers.

British Gas announced plans in November to scrap SVTs for new customers ahead of Government plans to impose a price cap on the costly energy products, which Centrica has warned could have “unintended consequences” for the market.

Around 4.5 million of Centrica’s customers - about 60% - were on SVTs at the time of the announcement, with 70% of profits coming from the SVT customer base.