Page 7 - Gi_September2019

industry & government news

CENTRICA BOSS TO STEP DOWN AS

ENERGY FIRM POSTS FIRST-HALF LOSSES

The embattled energy boss said he the year, and a “deeply regrettable”
would retire from the board by next dividend cut for investors.
year’s annual general meeting, five Centrica’s shareholders, which
years after taking the reins of the include about 600,000 individual
company in 2015. investors, will receive less than half
The former BP executive has faced the expected return after the company
increasing pressure to step down after a slashed its interim dividend by 58 per
steady decline in the company’s market cent to 1.5p a share.
value, which is now a quarter of what it The company’s share price plunged
was when Conn took the top job. in July to its lowest in more than 20
Since then Britain’s biggest energy years, making it the biggest faller on
supplier has lost over one million the FTSE 100.
customer accounts and made The company announced its lowest
thousands of job cuts as part of a plan dividend in 15 years less than four
CENTRICA BOSS IAN CONN to steady the company. months after revealing it had handed
Conn said he had “agreed with the Conn a 44 per cent pay rise for 2018
IAIN CONN HAS AGREED to step board that this is the right thing to to £2.4 million.
down as Chief Executive of Centrica, do” after “months of talks” over the The hike in pay angered trade unions
the owner of British Gas, after the company’s future. and was awarded despite a difficult year
energy company swung to a loss for He announced his departure in which the company imposed two
the first half of the year and slashed alongside worse-than-expected bill increases, warned on profits and
shareholder payouts. financial results for the first half of announced 4,000 job cuts.

UTILITA ENERGY TO PAY £175K FOR and tackle fuel poverty, for example, by
replacing a broken heating system or
CARBON EMISSIONS REDUCTION FAILINGS upgrading an inefficient one.
Energy Live News reports that Utilita
Energy also missed its overall target
to reduce carbon emissions from
customers’ homes under the Carbon
UTILITA
Emissions Reduction Obligation
(CERO) by two per cent as well as two
sub-obligations to reduce emissions
for vulnerable households in rural
areas and insulate homes with solid
walls by 20 per cent and three per
cent respectively.
As a result of not delivering them,
customers could have missed out on
£30,000 of savings on their energy
bills, according to Ofgem.
Utilita Energy said its lack of
monitoring led to over-delivery
against some obligations and the
under-delivery against others, leading
to non-compliance.
UTILITA ENERGY HAS FALLEN FOUL OF OFGEM RULES It has volunteered to provide more
regular updates for the next phase
UTILITA ENERGY IS TO pay £175,000 fund over its failure to deliver its of the scheme – ECO3 – and assured
for failing to meet its carbon emission obligations under the Energy Company Ofgem it has the processes in place that
reduction obligations, which could Obligation (ECO) scheme between will effectively manage its delivery.
have led to customers missing out on April 2015 and September 2018. The regulator has decided not to take
£30,000 of savings on their energy bills. ECO is a government energy formal enforcement action, taking into
Ofgem said the energy supplier will efficiency scheme, administered by account the steps the energy supplier
pay the amount to the energy redress Ofgem, to help reduce carbon emissions has taken to address its failings.

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News.indd 2 15/08/2019 16:05