ENERGY giant Centrica announced 6,000 job cuts yesterday, despite Centrica-owned British Gas doubling its profits in the first half of this year.

Paresh Patel, Unite regional co-ordinating officer for Centrica, said the news was “a devastating blow” for workers and the company’s decision was “unnecessary and driven by the pursuit of excessive profit.”

Mr Patel condemned Centrica for making the announcement to the media without consulting its workforce first.

British Gas reported making a profit of £528 million in the first half of 2015, more than what the company made in the whole of last year.

Centrica’s own profits dropped slightly to £1 billion.

Centrica chief executive Iain Conn conceded that the profits were large but maintained that it would be “very tough” to make a profit in the latter half of 2015.

He said the firm would concentrate resources on being a “customer-focused business.”

Centrica also revealed the creation of 2,000 new jobs, making the net loss 4,000 posts.

GMB national officer Gary Smith said the news made it a “day of deep concern across British Gas,” but it was the “focus on the long-term and investment in customer service which gives us room for optimism over front-line jobs.”

However, Mr Patel questioned Centrica’s intentions and called for the profits to be “directed at maintaining employment and further reducing the bills to the hard-pressed consumer, rather than going into the pockets of institutional shareholders.”

Unite has called for compulsory redundancies to be avoided and requested a meeting with senior executives

The job cuts and leap in profits provoked criticism from consumer and campaign groups as well as trade unions.

Campaign for Public Ownership director Neil Clark said that the announcements showed yet again that private energy companies’ motive was maximising private profit.

He said companies “increasing profit by increasing bills for the customer whilst laying staff off is the typical privatisation model.”

uSwitch.com consumer policy director Ann Robinson said: “The news that British Gas is predicting a surge in profits will be a hard pill to swallow for its customers, especially as so many went cold last winter to cope with sky-high bills.”

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd questioned why the savings from the recent plunge in wholesale energy prices had not been passed onto customers.