ScottishPower to axe 300 jobs after £925m profits

Energy giant ScottishPower is to axe 300 jobs with many workers being made redundant days before Christmas.

Around 150 jobs will go from the Glasgow office of ScottishPower Energy Retail, with the rest going from the Liverpool office.

ScottishPower, which is owned by Spanish firm Iberdrola, posted profits of £925 million in the first six months of this year and paid chief executive Keith Anderson £1.35m last year.

However, the retail arm of the Glasgow-based energy company, which supplies gas and electricity to almost five million households in the UK, has suffered a fall in profits.

The company complained in the summer that the energy price cap prevented the firm passing on higher energy costs to customers, saying: “The inability to pass on the high energy costs due to the price cap mechanism continues to lead to a strain on earnings.”

The workers who are losing their jobs earn between £23,000 and £35,000. One member of staff who is facing compulsory redundancy said: “Teams have been butchered. There are 300 jobs going in the restructure and that process will complete in December.

“They are outsourcing to Spain and South Africa, which will save them a fortune. There may be more jobs cut next year if they don’t achieve the savings.

“What’s added insult to injury is many of us are going at Christmas and, at the same time, they are advertising hundreds of green jobs.”

ScottishPower Renewables, a more profitable arm of the business, is taking on 1,000 staff in a move described by CEO Keith Anderson as the firm’s biggest recruitment drive.

Ian Perth, of trade union Prospect, which represents some of the workers who are losing their jobs in the retail division, confirmed 300 jobs are going.

“It’s evenly split between the Glasgow and Liverpool offices,” he said.

Scottish Power said it was reviewing its organisational structure.