Fat cat energy firm bosses raked in almost £13million a year while customers face devastating bill rises.
The cash was pocketed by top brass such as executives and directors at the giants – with £6million of it going to just five big chiefs.
Millions face being dragged down into fuel poverty from April when typical energy bills will rocket by up to £693, to £1,971 a year.
Yet Britain’s biggest energy firms still raked in £3billion of profit in 2020 – with their bosses listed among the UK’s top earners.
And today, the Sunday People reveals the huge pay and perks they hand out, which a union has branded “repugnant bandit capitalism”.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has offered customers £200 off their bills from October in a buy-now-pay-later-style loan. But the scheme has been attacked for failing to target those most in need. High bills for customers will last at least two years Chris O’Shea, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, warned last month.
He is among five execs paid almost £2m last year, taking home £765,000 in pay and benefits. The average full-time weekly wage in the UK is £611.
Centrica’s most recent accounts showed operating profits of £699m and at least four board members are multi-millionaires. Its non-executive directors were paid almost £1m.
SSE, which recorded profits of £1.5bn in 2020, gave £2.41m to its chief Alistair Phillips-Davies. It paid its directors almost £5.2m in 2020.
The OVO Energy-owned company was slammed last month for advising customers to keep their heating bills low by cuddling pets, eating porridge and “doing a few star jumps”.
Analysis of E.On, EDF and Scottish Power’s most recent accounts showed they paid their top brass £4.65m between them. E.On, which had to apologise for sending socks to customers branded with advice to turn down heating, made £198m in profits in 2020. Chief executive Michael Lewis was rewarded with an estimated £1m.
EDF boss Simone Rossi earned a similar amount, despite the French-owned company recording a £345m loss in the UK.
And Scottish Power paid £1.65m to three directors, with chief Keith Anderson believed to be on £1.15m and a £140,000 pension benefit.
NPower – one of the “Big Six” energy firms until it was taken over by E.On – handed £2.7m to its directors in 2020, company accounts show.
Critics want a windfall tax on the energy giants, plus oil and gas producers whose annual profits have quadrupled as barrel prices rocket.
Shell’s earnings quadrupled to £14.26bn for the year. BP is expected to next week report bumper annual profits of almost £9.6bn.
Its chief executive Bernard Looney described BP in November as “a cash machine at these types of prices”.
GMB union national secretary Andy Prendergast said: “Energy bosses are trousering eye-watering sums while bumping up bills so much that working people have to choose between eating and heating. It’s bandit capitalism and it’s repugnant.
“Until we fix the UK’s broken energy policy, tens of millions will continue to suffer – while these fatcats get the cream.”
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “The Chancellor should have adopted Labour’s plan for a windfall tax on the oil and producers to help fund a fair package of support of around £200 for families and up to £600 for those in the greatest need.
“Instead he chose to side with the oil and gas companies making billions, not the millions facing hardship this winter.”
Newcastle Labour MP Chi Onwurah added: “The Tories are once again making the wrong choices, we need a cut in VAT paid for by a windfall tax on the excess profits of the big gas companies.”
Mr Sunak said help of £350 per household – including a £150 council tax rebate in bands A-D – would “ease” people’s anxiety over the increase.
He told the Commons: “It is not sustainable to keep holding the price of energy artificially low. For me to stand here and pretend we don’t have to adjust to paying higher prices would be wrong and dishonest.”
But the Bank of England warned Mr Sunak’s measures would do little to avert a dramatic fall in living standards.
It warned households to brace for the biggest hit to take-home pay since records began. Yesterday, it emerged the average household water bill in England and Wales is set to rise by about £7 to £419.
Emma Pinchbeck, chief exec of Energy UK, representing the Big Six, said: “The record international wholesale gas price rises seen since the last price cap has led to 27 suppliers exiting the market since August – with those remaining losing up to hundreds of pounds per customer.
“Suppliers need to be able to recoup these costs but we do not expect customers to shoulder the burden from this exceptional and unprecedented period. Suppliers will continue to do all they can to help and support customers, especially the most vulnerable, but a rise of this scale needs the Government to step in.”
Low-paid workers who kept the country going through the pandemic have been hit hardest by the squeeze on living standards.
With inflation expected to rise above 7% in April, analysis shows the gap between pay, which grew by just 3.8% on average, and living costs is getting wider.
The findings come after the Bank of England’s £575,000-a-year governor Andrew Bailey sparked anger by saying workers should not demand higher pay because this could lead to price rises becoming “ingrained”.
The TUC warns low pay will reduce consumer spending and further hit the economy.
