British Gas hiring over 700 people in its UK call centres

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• New staff across Edinburgh, Leeds, Cardiff, Stockport and Leicester will all be in post by the end of the year to help customers this winter.
• British Gas has a £100 million support package available – the largest of any UK supplier – and staff will be given additional training on helping customers who are struggling with energy costs.

British Gas today announces it will provide even more help for customers this winter by growing its team of UK-based call centre colleagues and rolling out additional training on assisting customers in financial difficulty.

The company is hiring over 700 new roles across its network of energy contact centres, helping to boost its existing customer service teams in Stockport, Leicester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Cardiff as the winter heating season begins. These roles will all be in post by the end of the year with continued hiring taking place in January as part of the company’s aim to move call centre resource to the UK.

Last winter, British Gas experienced an increase in call volume due to the energy crisis and invested £25 million in its customer services operations to meet this demand. Whilst energy prices have come down, the company still expects customers to need support so is continuing to boost its UK teams. The increased staff will also mean longer opening times for British Gas customers of 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 9am to 2pm on Saturday.

British Gas has a £100 million support package in place to help customers who are struggling with energy costs – the largest voluntary support package offered by a UK supplier. Its customer services teams will receive additional training in how to help customers in financial difficultly including directing them to available support.  

Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica, parent company of British Gas, said: “Although energy prices have come down slightly, many of our customers are still struggling overall with the cost of living and need to speak to us for longer about their energy bills.  Strengthening our UK call centre operations will allow us to help more households with expert advice and support during this time. I’m extremely proud of how our expert teams support our customers every day – in the past year they’ve helped over 1 million customers who’ve been struggling to afford their bills with additional support such as grants, debt relief and payment plans.”

In addition to hiring UK based call centre staff, British Gas will continue to train apprentices to help accelerate the drive to net zero and to fix boilers and ensure people are heating their homes efficiently over the winter. The company has a strong history of boosting jobs and training in the UK with 3,500 new apprentices to be hired by 2030.